


Kissing Under The Stars

by Zoe_Nightshade_Rules



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: 30 Kisses Challenge, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Norse Religion & Lore, Artemis and Zoe both act like little shits, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Light Angst, Protectiveness, Soft Girlfriends, Triple-Threat Explosive Arrows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27360637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoe_Nightshade_Rules/pseuds/Zoe_Nightshade_Rules
Summary: a prompt every few days over the months of november(sorry I couldn't complete them all in a month like my original goal, schools a pain in my arse. I'm shelving this for now cause I have a bunch of fanfics I want to write)
Relationships: Artemis/Zoë Nightshade (Percy Jackson)
Comments: 47
Kudos: 64





	1. Laser Tag

Artemis grins excitedly at Zoë while they lead the group of girls into the dark room, paint-splattered against the black walls and UV lights shining dully over their heads. A TV sat in the corner, paused at the beginning of the safety video while everybody filed in. The girls unfortunate enough to wear bright colors shined neon in the dark when the others who wore dark, dull colors blended into the dark.

“Good Afternoon Ladies, if you’ll all bring your eyes to the TV, we’re going to watch a quick video before we get started!” The announcer says as she closes the door behind her once they’ve all filed in. 

There's a bit of shuffling as the Hunters adjust themselves so they can see the TV, the younger one heading to the front and the older towards the back. The video plays and it’s a bunch of pictures with a voice-over that’s just loud enough to make out a few key phrases but not loud enough to hear the monologuing worker whose voice is dull enough to make Artemis want to fall asleep. 

Artemis leans against the black wall and turns towards Zoë, lips quirked up in a fond smile as she gazes at her girlfriend; who gazes at the TV intensely, taking the safety video entirely too seriously. Zoë tenses unconsciously under the scrutiny, straightening herself from the wall, a habit built from a dozen years in a strict home. The taller girl glances around before finding Artemis, she slumps back against the wall and slides closer, a small smirk on her lips. 

“Shouldn’t you be watching the video?” Zoë murmurs quietly, her lips barely moving and her eyes flicking from the video and the announcer at the front. Still taking in the information that should be common sense and watching the announcer in case she hears them.

Artemis hums idly, lacing her fingers through Zoë’s and smiling brightly at the side of her head before turning her eyes back to the screen, humoring her. The safety instructor goes through the _many_ reasons why climbing on the walls or hanging from the ceilings is dangerous and should not be done for any reason, absolutely _riveting_. 

It’s only after all of the rules are listed on the screen in glaring white bullet points and there's a click as the safety instructor mutes themselves and pauses the screen, the announcer moves from their positions from the front. She walks through the crowd of slightly bored Hunters chatting away, “Please follow the rules, we will have to remove you from the premises if you endanger yourself or others. Now if you’ll follow me into the next room, we’ll get you girls suited up.”

Zoë squeezes Artemis’ hand, pulling her along with the rest of the group as they filter into the ‘armory’. Artemis follows lazily, leaving their arms taunt and her girlfriend practically drags her and smiling cheekily when Zoë sends her a glare. They pass from one paint-splattered room to another, but this one has thin vests with guns attached to the lining to walls and hangers placed below them for personal belongings. 

“Alright,” the announcer claps her hands together and turns to face the Hunters with a customer service grin and a voice to match it, “Along the walls, you’ll find a bunch of vests, put those on, you all look like big girls so I don't think I need to demonstrate how but if you need help, don’t hesitate to call me over.”

She pauses for a few seconds while everybody grabs a vest with a gun attached for themselves, Artemis grabs the one in the corner. It flickers between white, red, and blue and smells faintly of cleaning supplies. She slips it over her head, wrinkling her nose slightly when the uncomfortable rubber falls on her shoulder and seems 5 sizes too big for her. She tightens the strap at the waist but it doesn’t help much. 

Zoë glances over her eyes sparkle with amusement at the sight of her girlfriend drowning in the equipment, “Bit big for you, isn't it Artemis?” She laughs quietly, grinning good naturally when a few of the girls glance at their unofficial leaders. 

Artemis glares at her while her cheeks heat up and her face burns red. 

“Oh don’t worry, I’m sure they’ve got a kids size here, should I ask?” Zoë whispers conspires, her mouth hidden behind her hand and leaning in like it was a great secret.

“Shut up,” Artemis hisses, pushing the girl away, Zoë’s shoulders shake with silent laughter. 

“Now, it seems everybody's gotten their vests on, do you guys have specific teams or are we doing random today?” The announcer asks while she pulls a tablet from her apron. 

The girls look between each other helplessly. Artemis honestly doesn’t care, there are perks to being on either side, she could destroy Zoë, or she could destroy the others with Zoë on her side, both seem like good ideas. The girls shift on their feet when nobody speaks and the announcer's smile becomes a bit strained. 

“How about random, but can we have Zoë and Artemis as the team captains?” Alex suggests, her hand raised in the air like she was in school and she was facing the two girls in question, eyes flickering between the two with a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Wonderful, Zoë, Artemis, can you come up here so I can set that up?” The announcer says, raised on her tippy toes in an attempt to look over the crowd and spot the new team captains. 

Zoë walks to the front first and the girls separate for her like the sea did for Moses, Artemis follows, shaking her head at how dramatic it seemed. Zoë stands in front of the announcer with her head up and the gun in both hands like a private might in front of a commander. Artemis holds back a giggle and purses her lips to prevent herself from smiling as she stands next to the other girl, much more relaxed.

“You’ve gotta name on the side of your guns, mind telling me them?” the announcer, Rebecca if the name tag is anything to go by, fiddles with the iPad.

“Fire Master?” Artemis reads first, who names a gun ‘fire master’? 

“Gun Slinger,” Zoë says once Rebecca looks up from the iPad after inputting Artemis’ name. Rebecca nods and returns to the tablet and Zoë takes the opportunity to wink at Artemis. Artemis elbows her in retaliation, a shy smile on her face while she looks down and toes the floors.

Everybody's vests turn to either blue or red and light up the previous dim room. The shoulders, back, and chest all glow slightly, signaling weak spots and the gun glows both colors, hanging from girls' chests or clutched firmly in hands. Rebecca goes through some final rules and explains the game more but Artemis doesn’t pay much attention, instead, she lets the gun hang loosely in her left hand. It seems like an eternity before Rebecca finally opens the door to the black-walled maze.

Walls are built randomly in the large room, creating little nooks and crannies to hide in and the walls closer to the middle have holes punched out of them to make places to shoot from. Green and Orange paint is splattered randomly on the walls, ensuring players don’t run into them and the floor is covered in it. The UV lights cast the room in a purple glow and make Artemis white socks glow. 

Artemis turns to Zoë once they’ve walked to the middle, distantly the announcer counts down from twenty from the speakers littering the room, “You’re going to pay for that comment,” Artemis tells her threateningly, taking what is supposed to be a menacing step towards the taller girl. It doesn’t work very well. 

“Really?” Zoë drawls, leaning down mockingly so she’s at Artemis’ height.

“Yep, you’re going down,” Artemis vows, poking Zoë’s chest to push her back and upright.

Zoë is silent for a moment, staring into Artemis’ eyes intensely before she straightens, picking her gun up from where it was hanging from her vest, “Then may the best player win.”

With that she turns and jogs towards her side, disappearing out of Artemis’ view when she turns a corner. Artemis does the same as the announcer finishes the countdown.

“5”

“4”

“3”

“2”

“1”

They’re a few minutes into the game and Artemis is wandering through the dark maze silently, listening for a faint footstep or a rustle of fabric. She hunts quietly for prey, making her way behind enemy lines and shooting them in the back from a hidden position before making a break for it when they alert their teammates. 

She’s on her way back to her side when she’s grabbed from behind by her vest and pulled into a corner. She goes to yelp, intending to alert her teammates but a hand covers her mouth and the other is pushing the gun down. It’s when her captor spins Artemis that she recognizes her girlfriend. Lit poorly by the blue of her vest and the purple of the lights, her hair catches the dull lighting and her dark brown eyes are almost black. Her skin looks paler than normal and sweat shines on her forehead while her breaths come out in little pants.

“Zo-” Artemis is cut off by soft, slightly chapped, lips on her own and hands grasping desperately at the rubber of her vest. Her protest falls on deaf ears as she moves to cup Zoë’s face, running her thumbs over smooth cheeks. Zoë pulls her closer and bites Artemis’ lip gently.

Zoë pulls back after a minute, resting her forehead against Artemis’ and panting a bit more. Artemis whines at the loss and opens her eyes slowly, shivering slightly when Zoë drags her hands down her sides, one leaving her body while the other rests on her hip. 

“I love you,” Zoë whispers, giving Artemis another peck on the lips before she starts to pull away.

“Wha?” Artemis asks a bit dazed by the sudden kiss, but then there is the sound of the laser gun shooting, followed by a bright flash of red filling their dark corner and the sound of Artemis’ vest shutting down for a few seconds due to the hit. 

And then Zoë is gone, taking her warmth with her and her laugh bouncing off the black walls.

“1 minute remaining,” Rebecca announces, her voice overlapping with the last remnants of Zoë’s laugh.

“Shit,” Artemis swears breaking into a jog and heading back to the enemy side, she’s got to get some more points. 

Artemis growls angrily when the scores pop up and Zoë’s is first by a few points. Zoë laughs gleefully and throws an arm around Artemis’ shoulders. The girls talk excitedly around them, comparing scores and demanding rematches. 

“Guess I really am a gunslinger,” Zoë jokes, shooting finger guns at Artemis with her other hand. Zoë pulls her closer when Artemis scowl deepens, “Oh don’t be mad, y’can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it.”

“She-devil,” Artemis accuses, crossing her arms and huffing.

“C’mon, the game was fun, you’re just angry ‘cause I tricked you,” Zoë laughs, shaking Artemis a bit and teasingly grabbing a fistful of her shirt. 

Artemis is silent for a few seconds, listening to the others as they call for rematches, “I want a rematch,” she voices too, looking at Zoë, “And I’ll beat you this time.”


	2. Mondays

Zoë’s always loved Mondays, but once she started to date Artemis, she began to hate them too. 

She loves them because it’s the days that she goes to school early, it’s the days that she greets parents when they drop off their kids and the days that the kids all smile at her brightly and give her high fives. Although the last part happens almost every day, the kids doing it on Mondays, when they look so adorably tired makes it ten times better. The kids greeting her with their sleepy grins and weak high fives is the highlight of her teaching week, it’s why every Monday, she regulates the drop-off lane. 

She hates them because she has to wake up before Artemis and leave her to wake alone. She hates them because they’re full of little to no breakfast and rushed morning routines. She hates them because she has almost no time to take a shower or to braid her hair, only enough time to pull it in a ponytail. She hates Mondays because she feels groggy the entire day and like she isn’t at her best. . 

So Zoë finds herself jolting awake on a Monday morning, an hour earlier than usual, to her blaring alarm and Artemis quietly mumbling from her spot curled up into Zoë’s side, her eyebrow creased and a frown tugging at the edges of her lips. Her hair laid haphazardly on the pillows and her shirt riding up to show the smooth pale skin of her stomach. Zoë fumbles with the loud clock, switching the alarm off after she knocks some of the sleep-induced fog out of her brain, just enough to remember how to work the thing.

Zoë lets her arm fall back to the soft, warm, inviting bed, giving herself a few minutes to relax. She knows she’ll regret it in a few minutes, when she finds herself rushing through her shower and when her hair doesn’t dry fully, one of the most annoying things ever. But she was up late the night before, planning a few extra lessons for the week. 

She sighs and brings her arm back up to rub the sleep from her eyes with the back of her hand, using the other to push herself up when she reasons that if she doesn’t get up soon she won’t have time to shower. Artemis stirs again, her brow creasing again as she turns and throws an arm over Zoë and pulls the taller girl closer. Zoë’s lips quirk up a bit and she leans down to place a soft kiss on Artemis’ brow, letting her lips linger a bit before using her free hand to rub the crease between her eyes away. 

Artemis cracks an eye open a bit and Zoë can see that she struggles to keep it open, straining to see for just a few seconds. Zoë's heart melts when Artemis gives her a sleepy smile and snuggles closer to her, her eyes shutting once she realizes what woke her. Artemis shifts, moving herself onto Zoë’s body more and making the taller girl fall back to the bed with a small ‘oof’, “Sleeping time,” She mumbles against the fabric of Zoë’s shirt, curling a fist into it weakly and nodding her head against Zoë like it was a brilliant idea. 

“It’s Monday Artemis,” Zoë laughs quietly, trying to pry her girlfriend's arm off of her. How could a person who’s half-conscious, leaning more towards unconsciousness, the size of a 5th grader, have such a strong grip?

“Chiron works Monday’s too, let him deal with the little boogers,” Artemis groans, clinging even tighter when Zoë moves her efforts to pushing her entire body off. Zoë doesn’t respond, instead, she places her arms on Artemis’ shoulders and  _ pushes _ , grumbling when Artemis doesn’t budge. Zoë lets out a grunt when she pushes again, this time with a bit more force. Artemis releases the other girl, flopping onto her back when Zoë finally pushes her off. But with her momentum she rolls off the bed, hitting the floor with an undignified yelp.

“How do so many of your kids like you when you call them boogers?” Zoë complains, cradling her elbow when it shoots tingles through her arm, “And why the hell do they call your funny bone a funny bone! It’s not funny, it hurts!”

“Tough love,” Artemis mumbles, her voice muffled by a pillow and slurring as she drifts back into sleep. Zoë scowls and sits up, holding back the urge to hit the already sleeping girl with the same pillow she had replaced Zoë with.

“More like you let them goof off constantly,” Zoë grumbles, rubbing her elbow in an attempt to get a feeling other than shooting pin ‘n needles up and down her arm back into it as she gets to her feet. 

Zoë leaves the steam-filled bathroom with a toothbrush hanging from her mouth and she’s hopping around on one foot as she tries to put her other sock on. Artemis is sprawled across the bed eagle spread on with her head under a pile of pillows and the comforter kicked to the bottom of the bed, the edge of it piling on the floor. She drops her now sock-covered foot and takes her toothbrush out of her mouth, tipping her head up to prevent toothpaste from falling out as she calls out, “Artemis, wake up,” it’s garbled but Artemis rolls over and flips Zoë off anyway.

She rolls her eyes and heads back into the bathroom, finishing brushing her teeth and spitting, gargling mouthwash and flossing before leaving it again. Artemis is in the same position she was last time the kindergarten teacher saw her and Zoë rolls her eyes. She decides to be nice and let Artemis wake herself up. She heads to the dresser, fastening her watch on her wrist with the face on the inside of her right wrist. Pushing small studs in her ears, kindergartners had a tendency to pull on dangly earrings, and taking out her upper cartilage ones. 

Zoë flicks the lights on when she passes them as she leaves the room, smirking when she hears Artemis groan followed by the sheets shuffling and the floorboards creaking. She’s in the coat closet looking for a pair of shoes when the shower turns on. 

The coffee machine beeps quietly and stops draining into the cup at the same time Zoë’s toast pops out. She’s a few minutes away from running through the house now as she grabs her messenger bag and a folder full of simple math homework that she hadn’t put in her bag the night before. Her hair is still falling loosely around her shoulders and her jacket is wrapped around her forearm. 

She dumps all of her stuff onto the dining table, spinning through the kitchen as she transfers her coffee to a to-go mug and buttering her slightly burnt toast, grabbing an apple when she passes the fruit bowl too. She returns to the table a few minutes later, toast half-eaten and held between her teeth. 

She shoves her arms through her coat sleeves, leaving it open. She throws the folder into her bag haphazardly, something she knows she’ll regret later but she’s going to be late if she doesn’t hurry. Ducking under the shoulder strap as she puts the bag on, she removes the piece of bread for a second to yell to Artemis, “I’m leaving now! I started a new cup of coffee for you and there’s toast in the toaster!”

Zoë tucks her phone into her back pocket, slipping the apple into her coat pocket and grabbing her coffee, toast returned to her mouth. She’s grabbing her keys from the bowl when Artemis comes into the main room, sliding on the wooden floors waving a hairband in the air. Her wet hair is still in a towel and her lips are covered in whitish-blue toothpaste foam. 

“You almost forgot this,” Artemis says seriously, slipping it around Zoë’s wrist when the taller girl shows her full hands helplessly. Zoë sends her a meaningful look - unable to talk through the bread clutched in her teeth - she hopes Artemis interprets as ‘thank you’. 

“I know I’m amazing,” Artemis laughs, tugging on the collar of Zoë’s flannel shirt to give her a quick kiss on the underside of her jaw. Zoë grimaces at the feeling of the sticky toothpaste and stumbles back slightly when Artemis shoves her away, “Now go before you're late.”

Zoë tries to grin through the toast, and quickly leaves, kicking the apartment door closed with a loud thump on her way out.

She’s in the car and pulling out of the underground garage before she has time to wipe off the remnants of toothpaste, her bag tossed into the passenger seat, her toast finished and her uneaten apple sitting next to the coffee in the cup holders. 

**[Artemis: 4:43am]**

**I love you**

**[Received: 4:46am]**

**Love you too! See you at lunch!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1501  
> Time: 56 Min  
> Prompt #14: Quick, Goodbye Kiss - It's almost late for work kisses when their lips just peck yours, like an unfinished goodbye.
> 
> This one took me a while solely because I kept leaving and coming back to it a few hours later, anyway, in case it was unclear, both of the girls are kindergarten teachers at the same school, I imagine there's a bit of competition there. Also, I didn't explain some stuff last time, so all of these stories can be in a bunch of different universes or in the same ones, I won't ever tell you if they are connected or not, you guys can decide if they go in certain universes or connect to my other prompts or one-shots. I also won't tell you if they are canon-divergent or set in a modern world, it might be hinted but ultimately, it's up to you guys. Thank you for reading!


	3. Hunter For Monster (And Men)

For the record, Zoë doesn’t decide how long her and Artemis’ hunts will be. Sure. Zoë handles finding an older, more dangerous monster to track and send back to the underworld for their hunts. Which, she feels the need to explain, takes a lot of time and energy than one would think, she has to first look into a bunch of seemingly random occurrences that are in the limelight for only a few seconds before being pushed to the side by more pressing matters. This by itself is pointless hours spent trying to find a small news article that has the possibility of originating from a disturbance between the Ancient Greek and modern world, seriously, it takes hours to find a single lead. 

Then she has to look back into previous incidents similar to the one she’s found, looking through dozens of notebooks, and yes, she keeps notebooks, to find creatures ranging from minor gods to monsters to simply abnormal animals that might’ve caused the problem. And when she's trying to rule out what the creature could be, she has to be incredibly thorough, something she learned, in an extremely embarrassing event, when she thought they were tracking a sea monster - she doesn’t remember which one anymore - but it turned out to be an overgrown goldfish. 

Once she’s got few ideas on what exactly they’re hunting, she looks into even  _ more  _ notes in order to find their eating patterns, if they stick to the forest or in the cities, if they eat adults or children, animals or humans, etc. etc.. Not to mention that it’s rare her research efforts even amount to anything, often it’s just conspiracy theorizing about a Bigfoot in their area. Which really, Zoë doesn’t understand why everybody wants to find him and/or experiment on him, he’s a nice guy and just wants to be left alone. Also one of the few minor gods that Artemis gets along with fairly well, they occasionally get letters from him when he comes across a monster nest. Zoë appreciates that, less work for her. 

Either way, it takes a while, so when she found a Giant Scorpion rampaging in the State Park: Redwood she informed Artemis of it. Who decided a day later that they, Zoë and Artemis, would be traveling to California by themselves to hunt the beast, claiming that they hadn’t hunted together alone for a few years now. Although Zoë had a sneaking suspicion it was because Artemis was aware of Alex’s intense fear of them, and didn’t want to freak the younger hunter out. Despite Zoë knowing the most about the Scorpion, well what it was like this time around - monsters always came back different every time they were away in Tartarus for a while - such as eating preferences, movement patterns, etc., Artemis still declared they’d be gone for two weeks. Zoë thought it would only take a week at most, two days to travel there - they were in Utah at the time - a day to find it’s the exact location, a day to fight and recuperate, and two days to return to the hunters, one extra day tossed in if something went awry. 

And Zoë is right, they send the Giant Scorpion back to Tartarus in five days and find themselves exploring Redwood State Park for the next few days following the monster's defeat. Not that Zoë is complaining, she loves spending time with Artemis, although she doesn’t mind if it’s with the girls or not. Just, she thinks that a week to wander a state park, no matter how large, seems like a little much, not to mention they’ve got enhanced speed and it’s not the first time Zoë’s been there. 

They are walking down a shaded trail, in an attempt to hide from the scorching heat, named something Zoë doesn’t care to remember, what was the point when they are off-trail more than on, Artemis would point out different species of birds occasionally, they are the only visible animals so close to the trails, and a bunch of rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels follow the goddess of the hunt in a hoard of small animals. A common occurrence, although typically the animals tried to hide their curiosity better. 

Zoë is dressed in a grey t-shirt, the sleeves rolled all the way up to her shoulders, her jeans rolled halfway up her shins and her face is slick with sweat. She’s overheating, and despite all of the amazing things being apart of the Hunters of Artemis gives her - enhanced strength, enhanced speed, strengthened immune system, zoolingualism (talking to animals), eternal youth, and slight night-vision - it did not cover overheating, and Zoë does not feel like getting dehydrated and a headache anytime soon. Even though she knows that, if she asks, Artemis won’t hesitate to summon a water bottle for her, but she’s hoping that if they follow the trail enough, they’ll find a water break place or even a stream. 

Next to her Artemis is wearing her fall hunting outfit, because she’s insane, - and for some unknown reason, is always cold despite not having to regulate her body temperature - which consists of a long-sleeve silver shirt that she pulls up to her elbows, jeans and a pair of brown hiking boots. She’s also older than she usually appears, closer to a high school senior than a middle schooler, it’s an attempt to make it look like they’re not lost kids, at least when they both look well into highschool people won't question why they wander the park alone. It’s nice occasionally because then Artemis doesn’t get random childish impulses, like cliff jumping into a lake that’s only a couple meters deep, but if Zoë is honest, the random impulses are fun, because she will admit she likes cliff jumping, as long as the lake is deep enough. A downside is Artemis gains a couple of inches too, putting her only a couple of inches shorter than Zoë, and Zoë likes the height difference, it makes Artemis easier to tease and she can put her head on Artemis’ head, which is oddly enjoyable. Her hair is tied back into a messy bun and she fiddles with the stray strands of hair while they walk, her other hand clasped in Zoë’s and swinging it with exaggerated movements between them. 

“There’s people coming,” Artemis murmurs quietly, a few seconds later Zoë hears obnoxious shouting and the faint crunch of rocks underfoot. Her hand stops swinging as enthusiastically and she loosens her grip, a habit built up after centuries of hiding their relationship. 

“It’s fine, they’ll pass us,” Zoë responds easily, grinning at the goddess and swinging their hands again. Artemis gives her a half-smile back, her anxiety taking over. Artemis has an intense fear of her father sending people to follow her, whether for good intention or for bad, and it’s only grown over the years. Despite being open about her relationship with Zoë, Artemis gets jumpy when they’re alone, acting more like a wounded, cornered animal than a human. 

They keep walking, slower as Artemis becomes more hesitant, Zoë silently curses Zeus for creating such anxiety in the goddess while Artemis worries her lip. She tightens her grip on Artemis' hand, squeezing it gently as they walk and the men’s loud voices get louder and more boisterous. 

Artemis comes to a halt when a group of ten high school looking boys round the corner, shoving each other and shouting over the chatter to each other and being a general annoyance. Zoë glares at the group, scoffing when one of the boys stops once they spot the two girls, causing the others to bump into each other like a domino effect. Gods why were boys so unaware.

There’s some angry muttering and even more shoving as they yell at the boy for stopping, pushing him into their buddies and being overall oblivious. It’s not until the boy, Zoë decides to call him Tom, he looks like a Tom, falls on his but and gets knocked out of his weird trance. The boy points at Zoë and Artemis, his lips moving quickly but Zoë can’t hear what he’s saying, Zoë scowls at the boys when their attention turns to her. 

One of the boys, greasy-looking with slicked-back hair and a stupid-looking face, laughs good-naturedly, pulling Tom up and patting him on the back like it’s all good fun. He’s huge too, like a bodybuilder that’s in high school. 

“Hey ladies, mind if we join you on your hike?” He calls out, waving his hand in the air in greeting while he jogs over. He comes to a stop a few feet in front of the hunters, the other boys following close behind, and Zoë has to keep herself from grimacing, he’s even uglier close-up. 

When Zoë nor Artemis deign him with a response, he gives them a charming grin, it makes Zoë shudder, reminding her entirely too much of Hercules. Artemis must’ve known where her thoughts were going because she turns her head to the side and down slightly, just enough to let the boy know that the grin on her lips is not directed towards him. 

“What, you ignoring us?” He laughs, smirking at his friends and receiving pats on his back for such a  _ good  _ comeback.

“No, we’d rather walk by ourselves, thank you,” Artemis says curtly, shifting closer to Zoë.

“Well, _we’d_ _rather_ walk with you, can’t have such pretty ladies getting lost,” He responds, his voice full of false friendliness, he leans back, hollering far too loudly to the group surrounding him, “Do we boys.”

“No sir’ree, but if you insist on refusing our  _ generous _ offer, at least let us escort you out of the park,” One of the boys next to him adds, adjusting his baseball cap as he talks. 

“We’re fine, we’ve gotten this far, I’m sure we’ll make it out ok,” Artemis says, giving the boys a disarming smile, Zoë bristles slightly, she hates the ‘70’s. 

“I’m sure you ladies are mighty capable,” the boy, Greasy, reassures, holding his hands up in peace. He turns to Zoë, realizing that Artemis is a lost cause, “What about you girlie, ‘ill you let us walk you back home?”

“Maybe let us into your home after all of our hard work,” Greasy 2.0 makes a comeback, winking and Zoë, “Why not have some fun, you can think of it as a thank you.”

“I can assure you, she won’t be doing that,” Artemis bites out, pulling Zoë closer by her hand, her eyes flashing and a scowl replaces her previous smile. Zoë refrains from sticking her tongue out and fake barfing, scrunching her face up in disgust seems like a nice alternative.

“Well now, how d’ya know that huh? Why not let her speak for herself,” Greasy’s back to take over the show, throwing an arm over his buddy, Greasy 2.0, and shaking him, that gross smile still plastered across his face. 

“She a mute or somethin?” A new boy calls out from the other side of Greasy, obviously wanting in on some of the action. Zoë dubs him Bonehead.

“I can speak, I just don’t find myself in need of dignifying ye with a response when ye are all a bunch of daddy’s boys who barely pass thou classes, are all insecure about thou status as virgins and feel the need to prove thou selves to thou sleazy slime balls of people thou calls friends,” Zoë growls, stalking forward a few steps to intimidate them. 

Bonehead scoffs, crossing his arms, opening and closing his mouth like a venus flytrap as he tries to formulate a response. Zoë lets Artemis pull her back slightly with an almost imperceptible tug on her arm. The fuming girl cracks a small smile when a boy somewhere in the middle whispers, well he thinks he whispers, to a friend “The fuck does thou mean?”

And the boys look like they’re going to leave the two immortals alone until Tom - and gods, Zoë was beginning to like Tom; he was silent and hadn’t been participating with the rest of the group, not making a comment or patting the speaker on the back when they said a particularly ‘witty’ thing - takes notice of the girl's conjoined hands. He yells out, “They’re dykes!”

“Oh y’all are some of those confused girls,” Greasy 2.0 sneers, looking disgusted at the very idea of it.

“Yea-yea, my mama’s said that they’s do it ‘cause theys devils in disguise!” comes from a random boy, raising his hand up like he actually had something important to say.

“Or it’s cause those little twigs thou calls a dick isn’t cutting it,” Zoë mocks, pinching her fingers for emphasis.

“Please,” Greasy waves off, “You girls just ain’t had the right one yet,” he grabs his crutch and bites his lip, “Don’t worry, I’ll fix that for ya.”

Zoë laughs, “I bet my own two fingers could give me more pleasure than that thing.”

“What about you shorty,” Bonehead offers, turning his attention to Artemis. Zoë pushes the goddess behind her, blocking the idiot's view of her, “wanna take it out for a ride, I promise it’ll be fun.”

“I’m good,” Artemis scoffs, flipping the boy off over Zoë's shoulder. 

“Come on now, don’t you wanna try it?” Bonehead grins, taking a step closer to the girls. 

“She said no,” Zoë growls before Artemis can respond, she can hear Artemis huff behind her. 

“Oh don’t worry, you can join in,” Bonehead laughs, his grin turning more predatory as he continues, “We can have a threesome, ease you into it, maybe I’ll even let you fuck eachother-”

He doesn’t get to finish because Zoë gives him a right hook, grinning sadistically when the boy's teeth clack together and he lets out a muffled scream. His eyes pop out of his sockets and blood spills out of his mouth from a bitten tongue. Bonehead stumbles right into Greasy’s arms while the idiot brings a hand up to his mouth, spitting a couple of teeth into his hand covered in blood. Greasy pushes the poor boy back to Zoë, cheering him along with the rest of his friends.

“Fuckin’ Bhish,” Bonehead slurs, spewing red-tinted spit as he yells. Zoë shakes out her left hand, it hurts like a bitch, she needs to start sparring with Phoebe again, gods.

Bonehead winds his left-hand back, throwing it forward with way too much force and his entire body with it. Zoë ducks under the punch aimed for her right eye, only giving him time to get a semi-solid stance again before she punches him in the nose. Smirking when the bone gives under the pressure and blood starts flooding out almost immediately. The unfortunate kid wobbles for a second as his eyes roll up into his head, he tips backward comically, his back hitting the ground with a loud smack as dust floats up and around him. 

Zoë turns to the shocked boys, for once they were silent, her eyes scan the groups of stunned boys, stopping on Greasy 2.0. Greasy 2.0 has his sleeves rolled up and his fists curled tightly, and Greasy is pushing him towards Zoë once again. What was with the idiot and sacrificing his friends. 

“Is thee next?” Zoë asks, shaking out her right hand now.

“You’re fucked little lady,” Greasy 2.0 growls, finally giving in to his buddies insistent pushing.

Before Zoë can meet him in the middle, Artemis grabs her hand, and she stops immediately, softening her stance as Artemis talks, “Leave it, there just stupid mortals.”

Zoë obediently returns to her Goddess’ side, despite being her girlfriend, Artemis was still Zoë’s direct superior and even if Artemis hadn’t meant it as an order, it was a request. Zoë would never refuse any of Artemis’ requests.

“That’s right, heel bitch,” Greasy 2.0 snarls, though Zoë can see relief in his eyes, he makes up for the sudden drop of the intense atmosphere by turning to Artemis and growling, “Keep your pet on a tighter leash next time.”

Zoë flinches slightly at the sudden searing heat behind her as Artemis fails to hold her powers in for a second. She hardly has time to blink before Artemis yanks Zoë behind her while she walks a few steps forward. And even under all of Artemis’ clothing she can see the physical evidence of the shorter girl's anger, she’s not talking about a tense posture either. Artemis’ entire being  _ pulses _ with a silver light, the moon colored glow flickering against her skin as pure unrestrained power tries to leave the raging goddess’ form. Her veins glow a dull gold under Artemis' white skin, giving her entire being an almost transparent look. Her eyes shine brightly under the shaded trail, an eerie yellowish silver that makes her almost look like a cat and her fists are clenched tightly at her sides. The forest around them goes silent as the animal recognizes the furious deity in their presence and the boys freeze when they realize that they’ve angered something they really shouldn’t have. 

It's like the entire world paused to take a look at the vengeful goddess, and the silence is broken by a quiet voice, a whispered phrase but heard by everybody within a fifty-foot vicinity, “She is  _ not _ my  _ pet _ ,” Artemis spits, stalking forward slowly but nobody moves. She comes to a stop a foot away from Bonehead, and some of the boys have broken out of their trances, making an attempt to slowly walk away, like Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, won’t see them. 

Artemis almost moves too quickly for Zoë to track, but she brings her foot up between the boy's legs, hitting him where Apollo doesn’t shine. The boy grabs his groin almost immediately, his face souring as he lets out a loud groan, bending over and bringing his knees together in an attempt to relieve the pain. Artemis shows no mercy as she grabs the idiot's head between both hands and slams it onto her knee, the boy collapses on the floor with another grunt, writhing on the ground when Artemis aims another well-placed kick to his private parts.

The rest of the group is fleeing now, screaming as they run and Artemis simply sneers at them, waving her hand lazily as she utters a disgusted, “Mortals,” and one by one the boys turn into Jackalopes. They all hope away in a chaotic frenzy desperate to get away from the rampaging goddess. Three boys remain, all of them seeming to grow an extra foot, and their eyes flickering between one and two. Cyclops.

Zoë is summoning her bow, the forearm guard attached to her wrist sliding along her hand and transforming into a silver bow, her quiver of arrows appearing on her back, the second the monsters reveal themselves. Artemis, still flickering with raw power, charges the monsters with a war cry, her hunting knives materializing in her hands as she runs. 

The fight is quick, easy really, a newer hunter would’ve dealt with the cyclops easily - a goddess and her lieutenant? child's play, a mere minute of their time. Artemis duck under the first ones grabbing hands, dragging her silver daggers along the bottom of his calves and severing his Achilles tendon. The cyclops falls to the ground with a pained grunt, and Zoë shoots a well-placed arrow directly into his eye, he bursts into a shower of golden dust. The others are dealt with in a similar fashion, if not faster due to their pitiful wailing when they realize their brother is already dead. 

The dirt ground is covered in the golden dust from the monsters, shifting quietly in the gentle wind. The two boys on the ground are moaning now, waking up from their impromptu sleep and Artemis is already waving her hand to make the Jackalopes too, but Zoë could care less right now. 

Zoë grabs Artemis by the neck and smashes their lips together, high on adrenaline, a smile on her lips when Artemis responds immediately. Artemis whines quietly, sagging against Zoë’s body and placing her hands on the taller girl's waist. Zoë buries her hands into the other girl's hair, pulling her back just a bit, “Thee and thou bloody jackalopes,” Zoë rasps, her breath intermingling with Artemis’.

Artemis pouts when Zoë doesn’t return her lips to the goddess, tilting her head up to grab the lieutenant's bottom lip with her teeth, Zoë moans, pulling Artemis’ body even closer. “You love it,” Artemis whispers between kisses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 3433  
> Time: 2 hours and 23 minutes  
> Prompt #29: That little moan during the kiss when you bite their lip.
> 
> Yo, sorry if the end seems a little rushed and there is a lot of spelling errors, I was running out of time and this thing ended up a lot longer than I intended. Also, this prompt was slightly out of my comfort zone too so... I'll probably edit it sometime over the weekend.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope y'all like it and sorry if I used the Thee, Thine, Thy, and Thou stuff wrong.


	4. Arranged Marrige

Zoë hates the family dinners, the meals that King Zeus insists on having at least once a month, it’s hell on the cooks, it’s hell on the servants and it always ends with a stupid announcement that causes at least one person to storm out in anger. The dinners are bad enough with only the royal family - Zeus, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite (Ares’ wife), Hermes, Athena, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Apollo, and Artemis - but it always seems be a thousand times worse when the King brings in outside parties. It seems he’s decided to torture everybody tonight especially, making the oh so smart decision to invite all of the current nobles in the castle to join them, including a far off prince that Zoë has unsavory opinions about. 

The few good things about the dinners are few and little enjoyments, they do not, in any way, make up for the verbal abuse they get put through when they do one tiny thing wrong, like standing (liar). One of which is her permanent position as a guard, both a curse and a blessing. On one hand, she gets to see Artemis for an extra few hours, the ridiculous faces she makes when she thinks no one is watching are to die for, although Zoë may be biased. On the other hand, being constantly aware of how she is standing, how she is holding her sword and how she looks to outside parties in general - after all, Olympus is the strongest and most wealthy kingdom in the world, everything must be  _ perfect _ \- is a pain, a few small mistakes have earned her multiple whippings. Another good thing is she is coincidently placed directly behind Apollo and across from Artemis every time, Apollo doesn’t seem to mind his sister mouthing things dramatically at him much either. 

The royal family and their guests have been ‘eating’ for almost an hour now, but are unfortunately only on their main course and Zoë’s getting stiff. Although, after watching three servants get dragged from the dining room, likely to get punished in one way or another, she’s a bit hesitant to even shift her weight. Not to mention, Artemis has been in a hushed conversation with Athena for a while, leaving Zoë to stare dully across the room, directly into the eyes of Thalia Grace. She’s one of the many bastard children of Zeus, but lucky enough to have scored a job with the King, and she keeps giving Zoë awkward smiles. People have no idea how weird being a knight for the King until you find yourself staring into the eyes of a fellow knight, unable to look away in fear of getting whipped. Really, Zoë is just uncomfortable and bored. 

Of course, tonight is worse than most, Orion is here, a pretty boy prince who won’t stop flirting with Artemis. Zoë’s slowly finding it harder to smile back at Artemis when prompted when every time she looks at her, Orion is sitting directly to her left, entirely close for proper dining etiquette and with an arm thrown over the back of her princess’ chair. It doesn’t help that the prince seems to be with Artemis constantly, whenever Zoë gets a break, even for a few minutes, and wishes to spend it with her best friend (which is always), Orion is there, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, offering to escort her to their next destination or just hovering in the background. 

The cutlery scratching against plates and chatter comes to a complete stop when Zeus stands. Glass of wine in one hand and a prideful grin plastered on his face, here it comes. All of the nobles straighten unconsciously, even Orion removes his arm from Artemis’ personal space. Artemis smirks at Zoë and the knight can hear her voice almost perfectly, ‘Here it comes.’

“Before dessert comes out and our glasses are refilled,” The dramatic king gives a dramatic pause, sweeping his expectant gaze across the assembled royalty. He gets a few hesitant, scattered laughs, but seems satisfied as he continues, “I’d like to make an announcement.”

Zoë’s eyes flicker to Artemis during another lengthy pause, honestly, the man’s speeches are horrendous. Artemis is already looking at Zoë though, eyes rolling once she notices she has the knight's attention. She opens her mouth, ready to mouth an exaggerated comment that would take Zoë a few minutes to decipher when Orion leans over, a satisfied smirk on his lips as he whispers into Artemis’ ear, looking directly at Zoë as he does it. Zoë glares at him, furrowing her eyes just enough to be perceptible, and feels her lips quirk a bit when Artemis scoffs audibly and kicks him in the shin. 

“As you all are aware, most of my children are betrothed or even married!” Zeus says after taking a long drink from his glass of wine. Zoë feels the frigid talons of dread creep up behind her, holding her in place and making her nauseous. 

“I’m happy to announce that as of tonight, all of them are officially betrothed,” And there it is, Zoë stomach swoops and rolls and overall dances, tippity tapping through her intestines and crawling up her windpipe and choking her. Zoë swallows the bile and looks at the floor, her mind racing. Maybe he’s talking about one of the others, recently there’s been talk about Apollo’s fiance getting sick, maybe she died and Zoë just didn’t hear about it? Or Zeus finally recognized one of his bastard children as his own, maybe he was shipping them off to a different kingdom? But deep down she knew, there was only one princess left, Artemis. 

Time slows down as Zeus speaks, his voice coming out muffled, “Artemis, you are now officially engaged to the Prince of GeoDomina, Orion!”

Zoë can’t move, it feels like her feet are frozen to the ground and she has no hope of ever getting out. She wants to punch that smile off of Orion’s face, better, she wants to pummel him into the ground, she wants to, she wants to, she wants to. It doesn’t matter what she wants, it was a stupid fantasy to imagine that her and Artemis could amount to anything, a silly wish, a thought to entertain in the dark when she was supposed to be sleeping late at night in the barracks. 

Instead, Zoë stays rooted in place like a coward, keeping her eyes closed so she doesn’t glare at everything and nothing. She grips her sword so tight she fears for the handle, but it's the only acceptable way to keep her anger at bay. If she were to even lay a finger on any noble in the room in her current state, she’d be killed, hanged for her transgressions. Zoë keeps her eyes screwed shut when the polite applause breaks out, even the guards clap, unable to face her best friend. 

She clears her throat hesitantly, “My king, my breakfast this morning seems to be… disagreeing with me, may I take a few minutes to compose myself?” she chokes out, eyes on the floor and head bowed slightly. She can hear a few of the royals cut off mid-sentence to listen to her, she knows who they are too, she can feel their eyes burning into the side of her head. 

“You’re dismissed,” Zeus agrees after a moment of deliberation. 

Zoë turns on her heel, muttering a quiet, “Thank you, sir,” and keeping her eyes on the floor as she walks out, a tad bit faster than she should’ve but she needs to get out. She needs to before she doesn’t something she regrets, whether to herself or to someone else. Her steps are measured and the leather of her boots slapping the ground echoes around the room in only her ears. Her ears burn and she pretends she can’t hear the lower nobles whispering about her as the doors creak open loudly. 

She breaks into a run when the doors slam shut behind her, eyes stinging and her vision blurring. 

“-officially engaged to the Prince of GeoDomina, Orion!” Her father's words echo in her head, the words becoming more and more menacing as the phrase is repeated over and over and over and over. Artemis feels tears gather in the corner of her eyes, looking to Zoë for reassurance only to find her knight refusing to meet her gaze. Artemis blinks the evidence of her fear away as she smiles, accepting her sibling congratulations silently while Apollo and Athena give her pitying looks. 

She tries to hold back her flinch when Orion puts his hand on her thigh, she tries not to recoil when he whispers his sour breath into her ear. She lets her hand be grabbed by Athena, her brain shutting down when Aphrodite starts commenting about the wedding, specifically the wedding night. She hasn’t even had her first kiss yet. Athena squeezes her hand, but Artemis doesn’t return it, distantly she hears Apollo talk overtly loud and feels Orion's hand leaving her thigh. But her eyes remain fixed on Zoë, begging her to look at her, to laugh and tell her she imagined it all. 

She hears Athena gently calling her name, gripping her hand tightly, but she doesn’t register it. The princess can’t focus on anything, she feels like screaming, like pulling out her hair and like curling up into a ball. She feels the world start to quiet and her vision becomes blurred and suddenly everything fades away and it’s just Zoë, refusing to look at her. 

But then Zoë is talking and everything comes rushing back, Apollo is talking about his fiance with Orion and Athena is whispering frantically in her ear. And she can’t hear Zoë, she can only hear her father dismissing her and then Zoë is practically running out of the dining room. Only then does she realize that she’s been mumbling ‘I can’t’ over and over and it’s so quiet that she can hardly hear it. 

The doors slam, the bang echoing around the room and it’s loud enough to snap Artemis out of her trance. 

“Zoë!” Artemis calls, but it’s too late. The newly betrothed princess doesn’t care though, she feels the need to explain herself, to tell her friend that she didn’t know this was going to happen, that she'd rather run away from her home than marry the man, that she’d rather run away with Zoë. Artemis is on her feet in the next second, her chair skidding back, screeching loudly before falling down in a loud thud. 

She rips her hand out of Athena’s grasp and ignores her sister's place as she stumbles after her retreating knight. Tossing the doors open by herself, her hand clutching her dress tightly as she heads to the only place Zoë would go. 

“What is the meaning of this!” Zeus shouts after Artemis has fled, freezing everybody in place, the majority of which intending to follow the runaway girl. Dionysus intended to stow away in one of the castle’s many wine cellars, these diners were incredibly boring. But Zeus wasn’t done, “Sit down this instant, I will not have anybody else running out on me!”

“Father plea-” Apollo starts, reluctant to sit down and glances between the door and his chair.

“No, I will not have any of it, sit down now,” Zeus cuts him off, his voice like thunder, “And while we sit like civilized people, somebody is going to explain why one of my best knights ran out with my daughter close behind.”

“Well-” Apollo tries again, only to close his mouth when Athena shoots him a glare.

“Zoë been feeling unwell as of late, father, Artemis has been expressing concerns to me about her health, you know how dear the girl is to her,” Athena explains, sitting up straight and looking the king dead in the eye, “She’s simply concerned, if you’ll allow me to follow them, I’ll escort Zoë to the palace surgeon and bring Artemis back.”

Zeus strokes his greying beard.

“It’ll take only a few minutes, please father, they can’t have gotten far,” Athena reasons, a self-assured smile on her face and her entire body oozing confidence. 

“Fine, come back as soon as you take care of this Nightshade girl,” Zeus dismisses and Athena and Apollo are on their feet in an instant, “Apollo you can stay, keep entertain your future brother in law.”

Artemis finds Zoë in the garden, coincidentally just outside of Artemis’ chambers, tossing rocks angrily at the stone wall. She’s thrown the majority of her gear to the ground in a heap a few feet away, under a tree, leaving her in a simple tunic and her pants. She’s barefoot and her hair is down from the horrendous braid she is forced to wear when on active duty. Artemis hesitates a few yards away, her hand reaching out like she wants to touch her. She does, she wants to pull the obviously conflicted girl into a tight hug and never let go. 

“I know you’re there,” Zoë grunts when Artemis doesn’t bring attention to her presence. Artemis remains silent and Zoë throws a few more rocks before turning to her guest, her face cloudy.

“I’m surprised you’re not entertaining your new husband, I thought you’d be happier to be betrothed,” Zoë bites out, stalking up to the princess, crossing her arms and looking at her girl expectantly. 

All thoughts of defending herself fly out the window, replaced by white-hot rage, “You wouldn’t know, would you? Seeing as you refused to even  _ look _ at me.”

“Yea? I’m sorry, should I have clapped along with everybody else, congratulated you on getting sold in a business translation?” Zoë hisses, “Right, you want this don’t you, you want a nice prince to settle down with, to have kids with.”

Artemis’ fist is already winding back before she realizes her intent, but she lets it happen, throwing all of her weight into the punch. She hits the taller girl in the eye, she draws her hand back immediately, and Zoë stumbles hand going up to touch the tender skin almost immediately. 

“How dare you,” She growls, clutching her bruising hand in her other and trying to hide her pain.

“How dare I what? I thought you wanted to settle down, let a stupid  _ prince _ fuck you and breed heirs?” Zoë yells, cradling the side of her face with a mixed look of anger and admiration.

“Fuck you Zoë,” Artemis explodes, her face going red and hot while tears well up and spill over, leaving salty trails down her face. 

Zoë recoils, her tense posture slumping and her hand falling limply at her side. She even has the sense to look guilty, “Ah shit, I’m sorry Arty.”

Artemis glares, tempted to just leave the garden and ignore the other girl for the rest of her life. 

“That was uncalled for, I know you're worried about that stuff,” Zoë mumbles, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. Artemis rubs at her eyes furiously, sniffling and hiccuping, because of course, she starts hiccuping. The princess runs into her knight, wrapping her arms around the older girl's waist and burning her face into the scratchy fabric of the tunic. 

“You’re a complete asshole you know,” Artemis says wetly, pinching her side to prove her point. She’s not forgiving the knight yet, no she’ll have to grovel for it, but Zoë’s her best friend and Artemis refuses to let that fall apart over a few… poorly worded sentences. But, Zoë does have a lot of groveling to do. 

“I’m not the one who didn’t tell their best friend they’re getting married,” Zoë protests, trying to come off as cheerful, but her voice seems off and Artemis frowns.

“I didn’t know,” Artemis mumbles, all her fight gone, gods, she hates being mad at Zoë, and either way it never lasts. The knight furrows her brow and rests her cheek on the top of the princess’s head. 

“But you were hanging out with him all month,” Zoë mutters, though it sounds more like a question than a statement, and if Artemis hears correctly, she detects a  _ heavy _ dose of jealousy. Artemis shifts, removing herself from the comfort of Zoë’s arms to look at her face. 

“More like he stalked me,” Artemis scowls, the prince wouldn’t leave her alone, ever, “‘sides, why the hell would I choose him, he’s gross, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t brush his teeth, and he seems to have permanent stubble, no thanks.”

Zoë laughs, and it’s loud and awkward and so perfectly Zoë, and close up Artemis can see her slightly red eyes and hear her slightly congested nose. Had she been crying? Does that mean that she?

“Then who is your type,” Zoë asks, although her eyes seem incredibly sad and the smile seems a bit strained. The same smile that disappears once Artemis doesn’t respond and the sadness is replaced by worry.

Before Zoë can open Artemis presses her lips against Zoë’s for a brief second and the knight freezes. Artemis can’t help but feel like she just ruined a perfectly good friendship when Zoë stays frozen. But she can’t bring herself to be too concerned because even for a brief second, Artemis felt Zoë’s soft, slightly chapped, lips against her own and she can die a happy woman. 

Then Zoë is pulling Artemis back in and their teeth clash as they kiss because they’re both so damn happy. Zoë is holding Artemis close with soft hands on her face and Artemis refuses to let Zoë leave by gathering her shirt fabrics in her fists. And Artemis feels like she’s in heaven, like a meteor could crash into the earth and wipe out the world and she wouldn’t even blink.

It’s ruined by Athena clearing her throat, “Now, as much as I hate to break this up, fathers are rather pissy about this entire spectacle and I recommend getting back so you can lessen the punishment for the both of you.”

Artemis jumps away for Zoë, her face beet red, “Right, um, I’ll see you later Zoë,” Artemis’ voice cracks in the middle of the sentence and if she could turn brighter, she would,

“Come on love bird, let’s go,” Athena calls over her shoulder, already heading back into the palace. Artemis rushes to follow her, grinning from ear to ear and pressing her fingers to her still tingling lips. This was turning out to be the best and worst night of her life. 

“Get that dopey grin off your face!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 3095  
> Time: 3 hours  
> Prompt #11: Unbreakable Kiss - The type of kiss that really shouldn’t be happening, it’s a mistake, but you just can’t find yourself able to pull away  
> I have a love-hate relationship with this one, I love the idea, but I've been finding my writing lacking lately so sorry about that, I'm trying to write through writer's block, soooo sorry about the poor quality. I might rewrite the ending when I'm not going to fall asleep if I blink too long. Thank you for reading!


	5. TTEA

Zoë is happily leaning against a log, chatting quietly with Phoebe when Artemis drops herself directly behind the surprised Lieutenant. She sits tense, listening with one ear to Phoebe, who’s describing a new arrow idea, but most of her attention is on the fact that Artemis is now taking off her silver circlet. Zoë shivers lightly under Artemis' gentle fingers, leaning into her touch despite her confusion. 

She watches silently as Artemis keeps one hand scratching just to the left at the start of her braid and uses the other to place the circlet onto Alex’s head, ruffling her hair too. Artemis refuses to acknowledge the random act of affection, talking quietly with Raven about who knows what while untying the string of leather the Lieutenant uses instead of a hair tie. The goddess also ignores the subtle stutters that make their way into the hunters' conversations and the burning gaze from the girls as they glance between their leaders. 

“-explode in three different areas!” Phoebe exclaims, miming explosions with her hands. The fire shines brightly against her face, elongating the shadows on her face and making her maniac looking grin seem more so. 

When Artemis, in the process of distractedly unwinding her braid, pulls gently on a few strands, Zoë realizes that expectant look is directed towards her, “It, uh, it sounds like a fun idea, the… what’s their names again?”

“I want to name them the Ultimate Three-Way Explosion Arrows,” Phoebe announces with exaggerated flair while a fist pounds against the excited hunter's chest, “But Atlanta said it was stupid.”

“It is! It sounds sexual!” Atlanta glares from the other side of the fire, looking up from a game of cards she was playing. Zoë is briefly reminded of Ares’ creepy fire eyes that he insists on keeping, it’s a silly trick all of the gods have, the fire reflecting off of Atlanta’s dark eyes. 

“It’s a bit,” Zoë pauses, considering how to word it, “wordy.”

“We should call it the Triple Threat Explosion Arrow!” Alex exclaims from her spot, jumping up from her seat and grabbing the tiara before it falls off. Zoë winces, Apollo’s children were so  _ loud _ . 

“That’s just a-” Zoë starts, planning to tell her it’s still too wordy, but Artemis jumps in before she can finish.

“I think that’s a wonderful name!” Artemis grins, running her finger through Zoë’s now loose hair, fiddling with the knots until they are gone. Zoë turns to glare at her goddess, Artemis smirks back, including a sly wink just before the taller girl turns around. 

“Fine,” Zoë glares at the fire, though there is no actual heat to it, “While it sounds like a fun idea, would Raven be able to make them so the three explosives detach a few seconds before it hits its target?”

The group turns to their resident Hephaestus child, though Atlanta, Cora and Fern stay transfixed on their game of, was that poker? Zoë winces when Artemis pulls at a snarl a bit hard, the goddess rubs her head in apology. Raven is sitting next to Artemis, staring off into the distance and mouthing things to herself while she thinks. 

“I can make it so it shoots three explosives out in opposite directions a foot away from the actual arrow upon landing, whether on a monster or land,” Raven offers after a few moments of consideration, pulling a pencil down from behind her ear and tapping it repetitively against her leg. 

“You guys!” Alex is standing back up again, bouncing up and down with pent up energy, “We can call the arrows TTEA!” 

Zoë gives the excited nine-year-old a fond smile, but the sudden invention seems to be rapidly fading from everybody's minds already. Alex is sitting back down again, bouncing her leg quickly and talking to her sleepy partner in crime, Moe, who looks ready to fall asleep sitting up. Phoebe is standing up and making her way over to the poker game, asking to be dealt in for the next round. Raven is muttering quietly to herself, having materialized a piece of paper out of nowhere and already scribbling away on it. 

“You here that,” Artemis leans over, tugging gently on Zoë hair as she braids it again, but this time with smaller ones, “You’ll have to shout out, ‘Ready the TTEA hunters,’ or ‘Fire the TTEA’,” 

“You’re incorrigible,” Zoë murmurs, leaning back against Artemis and tilting her head back to stair the moon goddess.

“‘Raven! I need thee to make more TTEA!’” Artemis laughs lightly, eyes shining as she stares down at the older girl, her hair falling down around her face and framing it with a reddish-brown mane. 

“Oh Artemis! Thou art a genius for letting Alex name the TTEA,” She swoons, bringing her hands up to let her chin rest on them and batting her eyelashes. 

“Enough, I get it!” Zoë groans, letting her head fall back into her hands and burying her face into them. Gods dammit, she should’ve just let Phoebe name them the Ultimate Three-way Explosive Arrows.

“I’m teasing,” Artemis assures her, placing a gentle kiss on her head, grabbing Zoë’s circlet from Alex and settling it back onto the Lieutenants head, “Besides, I’m sure you’ll call them the Triple-Threats or something equally as boring.”

Zoë scowls, she is  _ not  _ boring. 

The first time the hunters use their new arrows, after numerous test runs, Zoë makes a point to call them TTEA, grinning smugly at Artemis when the goddess stares at her in wonder. She earns a kiss on the cheek later that night for her efforts. She ignores the questions of ‘who are you and what have you done with Zoë’ from the others and calls them TTEA whenever they end up using them, which is rare, they aren’t as useful at they thought, and every time she earns a kiss on the cheek and Artemis beams at her for the next few hours. She decides her prizes are well worth the slight embarrassment of naming highly explosive and dangerous weapons after hot leaf water. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Words: 1014  
> Time: 45 minutes  
> Prompt #27: Playing with each others hair, braiding and shit, head scritches, more head kisses and stuff
> 
> I'm apologizing in advance because it's incredibly likely that the prompts this weekend won't be very long, I'm working at my grandparents all day and won't have much time to write. Thank you for reading and thank you for all of the comments they make my day!


	6. Infection and Lycanthrope

The hunters are tracking a small pack of lycanthrope, now more than six and they appear to be rather amateur if their kill pattern was anything to go by. Zoë came across an article about mauled girls, mauled young girls who had physical evidence of sexual assault but appeared to be ripped apart by wolves. It is obvious that the lycanthrope are the cause of the gruesome murders to anyone who could see through the mist and has the time to actually track it. After finding a trail of similar crimes, she figures they are heading south-west, moving quickly and stopping only for quick snacks in near-by towns. Upon further research due to the odd movement pattern - lycanthrope typically migrate to colder areas, fur and all that - Zoë found numerous murders similar to what they were tracking now down in Nevada. Zoë was unsure of why exactly they were heading to Nevada until Artemis suggested it.

_ It was late into the night or early in the morning,  _ Zoë wasn’t certain, the hunters always have had a messed up sleep schedule. Artemis’ blessing giving them more energy at night but they do the majority of their hunting during the day. The newest hunters always fell asleep at random times before they adjusted to everybody's else's patterns. Which consisted of hunting a bunch of monsters during fall and winter getting four hours of sleep a night before switching to relaxing over the summer and spring, playing at night and sleeping well into the day; monsters were traditionally more active during the colder parts of the year. 

But Artemis was still out playing with some of the hunters, the moon chariot on autopilot for the night, although the moon goddess did check on it every few hours. And yes, Zoë did mean playing, last time she’d checked on the more childish of hunters, they were playing hide and seek, the boundaries were 50 feet out from the campfire in every direction. The others were either sitting near the fire, quietly giving the newer hunters hints on where the others had gone, or retiring for the night. 

Zoë was sitting on a pile of furs, dully digging through a bunch of articles on recent murders in Nevada, metaphorically, and marking down a trail of said murders, trying to figure out a reason for why they were heading there. And why there were so many of them located in Nevada. They’d defeated Lycaon a few years ago, and he usually took a couple of decades to regenerate and escape from Tartarus, then a few more to re-grow his ranks. So that wasn’t very likely. The lycanthrope usually scattered across the U.S. with their tails between their legs whenever they had no evident leader and they refused to listen to anybody that wasn’t a werewolf too. The girls had hunted them to near extinction so them cropping up everywhere again didn’t make much sense either. The only plausible reason she could think of was that they liked the taste of the people in Nevada, which was simply grasping at straws really. 

She’d briefly thought about the Romans; yes she was aware of their little camp, although she shouldn’t be insulting them, they were more put together than their greek counterparts. Either way, she was biased, being there to witness the Romans destroy the Greeks and honestly, despite how much she liked how much more strict Diana was compared to Artemis, she preferred her greek goddess. Although Diana was the one who initially confessed to Zoë - Zoë wasn’t aware that it was a confession at the time - and she got adorably flustered at the smallest form of affection. 

Zoë huffed, running a hand down her face, she was getting distracted. Logically, it wasn’t her fault, the gleeful laughs coming from the campfire and the forest was distracting, and she had a sneaking suspicion the majority of the laughs were from her patron in hopes of drawing her out. Zoë cursed the goddess in her head, swearing in every language she’d picked up from traveling and from fellow hunters, it was actually quite a lot if she were to count it. 

‘ _ Whoa, tell me how you really feel _ ,’ Artemis’ voice is full of amusement as it bounces around in her head and she can even hear the loud twinkling laugh a few feet away from the tent or is that her head too? It was in times like these that Zoë truly regretted agreeing to an empathy link with Artemis. 

Zoë sets her stuff to the side, folding up the map and stacking her papers and tools slowly. She could practically feel her goddess’ impatience. The lieutenant emerged from the biggest tent, Artemis’ tent, and is greeted by a chorus of happy hunters, all looking at her with excitement. Great, Zoë’s not getting any more work done tonight, she can already see them plotting. 

“What were you doing in there that was oh, so important?” Artemis appeared at her side, coming from the backside of the tent where she was likely sitting doing whatever it is she does to annoy her. 

“The lycanthrope I’m tracking, they’re all migrating to Nevada for some reason,” Zoë explained, allowing the goddess to gently direct her to the waiting group of girls, where she’ll likely be made ‘it’ for whatever game they’re planning.

“Think it’s Lycaon?” Artemis asked, and the Hesperide can see several of the girls perk up at the mention of the werewolf. 

“We sent him Tartarus a few years ago, it’s too soon for him to be back already,” Zoë countered, sitting down on one of the logs.

“I kill’t him!” Alex grinned, hooking a thumb towards her chest, “Now put your foot in the middle.”

Zoë obeyed and Artemis did the same, “Hmmm,” Artemis hummed, dropping her chin into her palm while she thought, “ with the lightning bolt fiasco he might’ve been able to slip out easier? That Jackson boy has been causing a lot of chaos lately.”

Zoë didn’t have the chance to respond because Alex was yelling announcing the Lieutenant as ‘it’ and suddenly everybody was gone, only Atlanta and Moe sat by the fire. Honestly, Zoë wasn’t even that surprised though, it’s a common occurrence on the off chance that she does join in on the games, frankly, she thought that the little game Alex played to decide who is it is rigged. She frantically searched her memory in hopes of recalling what exactly it was she tricked into playing. 

‘ _ Infection _ ,’ Artemis chimed in helpfully. 

The lieutenant turned to the remaining hunters, “Infection is that game where if I tag somebody, they become ‘it’ with me too, right?”

_ Phoebe ignored the question and Moe shrugged unhelpfully. _

Instead of heading straight to Nevada, they were tracking different groups of the lycanthrope, trying to thin pack, pun intended before they took Lycaon and his fellow, and hopefully fewer, werewolves on in Nevada, despite the uncertainty on whether or not Lycaon is really there. 

The group is making their way through some forest in Wyoming, Atlanta and Phoebe leading the girls while bickering on who found the next track or broken stick first. Moe, Alex and Fern are whispering quietly to each other behind the two girls, Alex occasionally shoving one of the girls away from her with a loud laugh. Artemis is a few feet behind them, very tense for some reason and peering into the forest with uncertainty, but she hasn’t brought any attention to it yet so Zoë leaves her goddess be. In front of Zoë, Raven fiddles with a few spare pieces of twine and metal, assembling small toys before taking them apart while Rosa talks her ear off. Zoë brings up the rear, she’d been talking to Artemis through their empathy link for a few hours before the goddess got tense suddenly and cut off their link.

Up ahead, Atlanta and Phoebe come to a stop, their bickering quieting to small barbs and they talk in frantic, hushed whispers. They leave the group in a small clearing, circling the perimeter as they presumably look for a new trail. The two girls disappear into the woods. 

“Zoë could you, ah come here?” Phoebe calls the lieutenant over, coming back into the small clearing with Atlanta on her heel, both looking worried. Zoë nods and makes her way over to the girls, the rest of the hunters' carefree chatter ceases as they look to their concerned trackers. 

“They all split up in this clearing, five different trails going in five different directions,” Atlanta jumps in when Phoebe struggles to come up with an explanation.

“Why aren’t we following one of the trails?” The hesperide asks, scanning the forest floor for the five trails the trackers described,

“We did, they all disappear a few feet into th-” Phoebe is interrupted by a twig snapping just deep enough into the forest the shadows cover more than the light reveals. 

Zoë is quick to react, pulling an arrow from her quiver and striking it against her boot. The tip of the arrow catches fire like a match, her bow slides from her wrist, transforming from a wrist guard to a weapon in a matter of seconds. She has her arrow drawn and pointed at where the sound came from almost immediately, the fire glinting slightly on the silver of her bow.

“Permission to shoot, my lady,” Zoë asks, slipping into her rank as a lieutenant easily. The girls around her shift slightly, some summoning their bows and keeping them at ready while others prepare for a fight. 

“Permission granted,” Artemis commands, peering into the darkness along with the rest of the girls, silently hoping that they didn’t fall into an ambush like she suspects. 

The arrow is released, and whirls through the air, making a quiet whistling sound as it flies. The fire lights up the darkening forest as the sun begins to set, elongating some of the shadows and the hunters hold their breaths as they wait to see what made the sound. Fifteen feet in, just before the fire is blown out as a safety measure in order to prevent accidental forest fires, the face of a female lycanthrope is revealed. Her face stuck between a wolf and a human, with a muzzle in place of her mouth, ears pointed and light fur covering any skin not covered by her shredded skin. She stands on two legs, and in her claws is a bloody rabbit corpse, likely the animal that made the sound. 

The monster howls loudly once she realizes she’s been caught, tossing the rabbit to the side carelessly and shifting fully into a wolf. She lopes quickly towards the hunters, and there's rustling surrounding them as the rest of her pack reveal themselves. The fully transformed wolves crash into the clearing, circling the trapped hunters and growling loudly, they’re fur standing upright.

Zoë already has another arrow drawn and watches the female wolf, her loaded bow pointing to the ground as she waits for the goddess of the hunts' next orders. The rest of the hunters circle up, leaving space between themselves so they can move, all in similar positions. 

“Permission to fight the monsters, my lady?” Zoë prompts after her patron remains silent.

For a few seconds, the only sound in the forest is the wolves loud growling and Zoë chances a glance at her goddess. 

“Permission granted, Zoë.”

Alex lets out a war cry and releases her arrow, the rest of the hunters doing the same and the clearing is briefly filled with wolves yelping. Zoë releases her arrow, it flies directly into the mouth of the charging lycanthrope, the monster yelps. The wolf slams it’s muzzle shut, snapping Zoë’s arrow in half and ripping the inside of its throat in the process. Zoë watches, detached, as the wolf continues to charge, slowly disintegrating into golden dust as it runs. 

She pulls another arrow from her quiver, hooking it onto the string of her bow and pulling her arm back. The wolf jumps, a few feet away from her, and Zoë quickly aims, adjusting the arrow in tiny increments until it’s aimed directly for the monster's heart. The arrow pierces the lycanthropes heart when it’s muzzle is a few feet away from Zoë’s face. Golden dust rains over Zoë and she has just enough time to catch her arrow before it falls to the ground. 

Around her the girls kill the monsters in groups, teaming up to hit the wolves in spots that will disable it while one of them shoots it in the heart or the head. Artemis is wrestling with her opponent, her bow discarded in favor of her hands. Zoë glances over just in time to watch Artemis spin the lycanthrope so she’s pining into the ground and then she snaps its neck, the monster turns to dust in her hands. 

One of the girls, Rosa, their newest recruit, screams and Zoë spins on her heel. The hunter is on the ground. A wolf is towering over her and snapping at her neck while Rosa tries to defend herself from the onslaught of attacks by using her bow in an attempt to push the monster away. The lycanthropes' powerful jaw splinters the wood and with one more bite, Zoë can see that the weapon is going to give out. 

Zoë, in a wonderful moment of pure instinct, pulls one of her few throwing knives from her boot, pulling her arm back and throwing it. Distantly, she hears the other girls realizing what is happening and screaming Rosa’s name. The knife hits the wolf in the eye, and it disintegrates almost immediately, leaving a shaking Rosa covered in gold dust. 

Everybody rushes towards their downed comrade, checking for any obvious injuries. Zoë stands a few feet back, letting the girl's friends worry over her, her bow turning back into her arm guard. Artemis makes her way over, picking the silver knife up from the pile of dust and offering the group a few reassuring words. The young girl gives her a strained smile and quiet thank you before the goddess walks over to the lieutenant, brushing the monster remains off of the weapon. 

Artemis hands the taller girl her knife, giving her a grin before pulling her head down a bit and standing on the tip of her toes. She presses a gentle kiss to her companion's forehead, half of her lips on the cold metal of Zoë’s circlet the other against her warm, slightly sweaty skin. Artemis retreats after a few seconds, giving the blushing girl a moment to recover before whispering a quiet, “Good work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt #3: Hairline kiss/kiss on Zoe tiara
> 
> I am a firm believer that Zoë and Artemis have an empathy link, I even have proof, but I'm too lazy to write it down. Also sorry if there are some spelling mistakes or if my fighting scenes aren't the best, I'm trying to get better. I'm surprised this is as long as it is, but I suppose the pointless, but cute (I hope), flashback helped. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the prompt! Thanks for reading!


	7. Suprise...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an Alpha/Beta/Omega work, if you don't like that type of thing just skip this chapter, however, there is nothing explicit as I am a very vanilla writer, I just really like the concept of nesting.

Most of the girls in the hunt were betas, they didn’t have to deal with the bi-yearly heats or annual ruts. And after a couple of years, the girls always ended up synching up, resulting in less time off from hunting and making it easier to plan around them.

During the heats, the girls usually all camp out in one of their tents and cuddle in an attempt to stave off the worst of it while the beta’s take turns standing guard, warding off unwanted advances, and joining the cuddle fest occasionally. 

When the alpha’s go into their ruts, there’s near-constant sparring and aggressive growls. Possessive and agitated pheromones swamp the camp and if it gets bad enough, Artemis takes the alphas to Olympus.

Unfortunately, the group gained a new alpha into their ranks recently, Alex, who’s still adjusting to their cycles and stumbling blindly through the hierarchy. Their first rut was in between the omega’s cycles, so they avoided an untrained alpha, who was likely still experiencing her first ruts, causing havoc, but that didn’t mean there weren't problems:

Over a span of nine days, Alex managed to piss Phoebe off enough to make the fuming child of Hermes stalk off and disappear for a few days. She attempted to challenge Artemis, the pack alpha, for the right to lead, which luckily Artemis thought was humorous and didn’t punish the alpha pup for being disrespectful. She sparred with every single one of the hunters and managed to get pummeled into the ground every time, aside from when she was fighting Rosa - also a new hunter, beta - who was afraid to hurt the energetic alpha. She asked for Moe’s, her best friend, hand in marriage, growling threateningly at anybody who got too close to the sleepy girl, claiming that she had to ‘protect my sleepy omega from other unruly alphas!’.

Luckily nobody was really angry over the entire ordeal, some of the older hunters were even used to it, aside from Phoebe who glared at Alex for a few weeks afterward, sharpening her knives menacingly. 

Now the omega’s were beginning to go into heat, each of the four girls gradually being whisked off to Moe’s tent, who had the most furs and pillows (likely due to her fathers and her eternal sleepiness), with Atlanta already seated on a log outside of the open front flap. 

Zoë wrinkles her nose at the sickeningly sweet stench that comes from the tent, she really hates heats. She can already smell a similar smell coming from her scent glands, an undercurrent to Artemis’ strong woodsy smell that usually tides her own obviously omega scent. She knows she’ll have to retreat to her own tent; the idea of cuddling next to others who are whining and sweaty and smell like that is revolting to her and she’s not quite sure how people willingly do it. 

She’d already taken off her fall jacket despite the weather being around forty-five degrees Fahrenheit, letting the cool air chill her clammy skin. She has her pants rolled up to just below her knees and isn’t wearing any shoes to ward off the sudden heat pulsing under her skin. The baby hairs at the nape of her neck stick uncomfortably to her skin and she knows the skin on her face is flushed, so much so that she looks like she’s about to have a heat stroke. Honestly, she feels like she’s on the verge of having one.

Zoë can feel Artemis’ worried glances at the back of her head; her goddess had wanted her to retreat to her tent the second she smelt Zoë’s scent, she’s been told she smells like flowers and apples by the few girls already. She knows they’re idle comments about how she smells different than usual from the younger girls who aren’t aware of her second gender as an omega or they’re subtle reminders from the older ones that she should really go to her tent. But she can’t yet, Moe hasn’t gone to the tent yet despite the obvious smell of heat coming from her and her restlessness despite Alex’s pleas. 

“Zoë~” Artemis sing-songs as she materializes next to her mate. Zoë can hear the sharp inhale the goddess gives, whether to see how far into her heat she is or to prevent her from smelling Zoë’s scent is unknown. 

Zoë hums, tying the fletching to the base of an arrow.

“Go back to the tent,” Artemis murmurs, moving a few pieces of Zoë’s hair away from her neck and pressing light kisses against Zoë’s scent gland. The lieutenant leans into her mate's chest, shuddering against the ministrations and purring quietly, “I can smell you from the other side of the camp.”

“That doesn’t count, thou are a goddess,” Zoë protests, shifting away from the shorter girls distracting touch, scolding herself for letting ‘her omega’ control her, “thou are also my mate.”

“Either way, you're making Alex jumpy, she doesn’t know you’re an omega yet, your sudden scent change is confusing and aggravating to her,” Artemis reminds, nuzzling lazily at Zoë skin.

Zoë glances up at the girl in question, catching the child of Apollo staring at her curiously. The Hesperide gives the alpha a cheerful smile and Alex turns red when she realizes she’s been caught. Zoë keeps smiling as she whispers to Artemis, “How did thee even know that?”

“I’m the pack alpha.”

“Hush, thee knows that’s not how that works,” Zoë growls, shifting away from Artemis again when she feels herself getting even hotter, which, really, should be impossible. She tosses her finished arrow to the side and grabs another shaft and arrow-head.

Artemis laughs loudly, drawing a few curious glances from around them, “She’s been fidgeting constantly and glancing at you even for a few seconds,” She explains through giggles.

Zoë scowls, grabbing her hunting knife from beside her and running it harshly over one of the sides of the wood. Damned notch. 

“Zoë, love, go back to your tent,” Artemis is back to whispering. She reaches around the suddenly aggressive omega and extracts the knife and half-made arrow from the older girl's death grip. 

“I’ve got to wait for Moe and Raven to go to Moe’s tent,” Zoë protests, making a mad grab for her stolen items and narrowly avoids falling off of the log. 

“Alex is trying to get Moe to go and we both know that Raven prefers to spar during her heat,” Artemis soothes, a hand on the omega’s back to prevent her from tipping over, “Either way, you’re getting your mood swings and a bit clumsy, go to your tent before you embarrass yourself.”

Zoë huffs and crosses her arms with a pout on her face. Why did goddesses have to be so damned logical sometimes, Zoë is supposed to be the responsible person in this relationship!

“I will carry you to your tent and sit outside of it, y’know, like I do for misbehaving puppies,” Artemis offers and Zoë can feel the goddesses smirk against the side of her neck. Zoë has the sudden vivid image of being thrown off the auburn-haired girl's shoulder and marched into her tent kicking and screaming. She shudders.

“You’ll pay for this,” Zoë concedes, practically shoving her mate away as she stands. The omega holds down the urge to immediately apologize for the rude action, instead of scowling and walking as dignifiedly as she can into her tent. She tosses the tent flap open as dramatically as she can and falls onto her furs that haven’t been touched in months. 

Zoë sweeps her eyes across her tent, everything put away and folded perfectly. In the corner, there is a chest full of a bunch of pieces of clothing and furs, one from each of the girls, for nesting material. The Hesperide hooks her hands together and pushes them out in front of her, cracking them. Time to get started. 

  
  


Artemis laughs silently as her lieutenant dramatically goes into her tent, surprised that the girl resisted flipping the goddess off as she walked, no stalked away. She pushes herself off of her knees and to her feet, heading back over to Phoebe, who is idly chatting with Naomi. Both girls have a piece of cloth over their noses to serve as masks as they let their noses adjust to the smell of the omegas in their heats.

“Finally convince her to retreat?” Phoebe grins once she notices Artemis joining them again. Phoebe and Naomi are two of the older hunters, both well acquainted with their lieutenant's antics by now, Artemis has reason to suspect that they even place bets on it now. 

“Hopefully, you never know with her,” Artemis smiles back, in the corner of her eye, she sees Naomi subtly passing Phoebe a few drachmae. So they do bet on Zoë. 

“Is Zoë ok?” Alex asks Artemis after the lieutenant had stayed in her tent when the others (aside from the omegas) were eating supper. The goddess of the hunt had two thermoses full of the stew they’d had earlier in her hands and was balancing a large jug of water between the two thermoses. 

“Yea, she doesn’t really like the smell of the girls when they go into heat, it gives her headaches and makes her sick,” Artemis explains, halting her movements as she turns to the young hunter. She doesn’t know when all of the hunters decided to keep Zoë’s identity as an omega a secret from the others but it was a good source of entertainment when the newer hunters finally figured it out, so she went along with it.

“Oh,” Alex frowns, looking uncertain and toeing the ground as she nervously bites her lip, “Tell her I hope she gets better?”

“Of course,” Artemis promises, sticking her tongue out in concentration as she shifts all of her stuff into one arm. She reaches out with her now freed hand and ruffles the young alpha’s hair affectionately. Alex beams and skips away, bouncing up to Atlanta with an excited grin as she talks to the guard beta excitedly. 

Zoë has been in her tent for three days by the time Alex actually needs something from the ancient hunter. She’s been directing her questions to her fellow hunters since she heard about Zoë’s sensitivity to omega’s scents. Which, she feels the need to point out, seems weird because Alex finds the scent comforting, especially Moe’s. Phoebe has gotten the brunt of the questions, varying from questions about hunter duties to personal questions either about herself or the others. If Phoebe doesn’t have the answer, which is rare, she goes to Artemis, who always seems happy to answer her questions. 

After receiving a confused glance from both Phoebe and Artemis along with a shrug from Atlanta she finds herself in front of Zoë’s tent. Zoë’s tent, which she’s been actively avoiding due to the weirdly comforting apple scent emitting from it along with the soothing pheromones. She can hear her lieutenant moving around inside and shifts nervously. Alex can’t tell anybody why she’s so nervous, maybe it’s the new scent that’s unsettling or just the fact that Zoë is known for being cranky when she has a cold. If she’s been confined by her tent by Artemis, yes she saw the entire scene where Artemis told Zoë to go to her tent, it must be a bad illness which means a bad temper. 

“Zoë?” Alex calls out, unsure if she should just enter or knock on something. Zoë is usually the first one up out of all of them, so for Alex, this is completely new territory. She doesn’t get a response, only more shifting and was that a quiet groan?

Alex opens the tent flap, blanching when the smell of apples hits her more fully. The alpha pup quickly covers her nose with her hand and takes in the sight of her lieutenant. 

In the center of the tent is Zoë Nightshade curled up in a ball surrounded in a heap of clothing and blankets and pillows. The Hesperide lazily peaks an eye open, staring at Alex with glazed over eyes, pupils blown so large the iris is impossible to see from a few feet away. She has a sweatshirt that’s half a size too large on, Alex swears she’s seen Artemis wear it before, and a pair of basketball shorts. She’s surrounded by a dozen furs that Alex is fairly certain she stole from the other hunters' tents and curled up on a bunch of pillows. 

Zoë closes her eyes again and turns away from the frozen hunter, burying her face into something silver and seeming to fall back asleep. Alex’s mind is running a mile a minute, the ever serious never-smelling-sweet old-fashioned lieutenant was an omega?

Confusion covers the pup's face as she opens her mouth, ready to voice a question. Which question? She’ll figure it out as she speaks. 

A pale, slightly cold, hand covers her nose and mouth, cutting off her airflow a bit. Alex gives a quiet squeak, squirming to get out of her assailant's grasp until she hears low whispers in her ear.

“Quiet now, we wouldn’t want to wake our beloved lieutenant up,” Artemis says playfully, although there's a menacing warning under the joking demeanor that has Alex freezing up in uncertainty. 

Alex nods quickly, rigid as her goddess moves closer to get a better look at their sleeping lieutenant.

“Isn’t she absolutely adorable when she sleeps?” The olympian muses thoughtfully, studying the nest surrounding her mate lazily. Eyes swinging from one item to the next, pride filling her eyes whenever she spots one of her items among the mess.

“She’s an Omega?” Alex asks, her voice muffled through the hand of her Patreon. She tries not to speak very loud, but the way Artemis’ hand tightens a bit over her face before releasing it fully when Zoë doesn’t stir is telling.

“Of course, I’m surprised you hadn’t realized until now,” Artemis murmurs, resting her chin on Alex’s shoulder as she admires her omega with a loving grin on her face, “Welp, now that you know, can you leave?”

Alex’s eyebrows lift in surprise, shocked at the gentle command. It wasn’t common for Artemis to order anyone around, usually, Zoë was the one and Alex found herself being gently pushed towards the tent flap before she could even regain her senses. The alpha pup stumbles out of the tent when Artemis gives her one last shove, her foot catching on the bottom of the tent as she leaves the tent, almost falling flat on her face in the process. Behind her, she can hear Artemis laughing quietly.

Artemis hums as she makes her way through Zoë’s nest, careful not to move anything. The lieutenant is incredibly possessive and protective of the pile of cloth, one time she had attacked Artemis when the goddess had accidentally bumped a pillow and sent it a few inches to the left. She carefully steps over her mate's sleeping form and lays down next to her.

Artemis gathers the slumbering girl into her arms, pulling her into her chest and nuzzling into her neck. Zoë groans, sleepily pushing away her captor with a furrow in her brow. 

“Too hot,” Zoë mumbles, shifting so she’s facing the goddess, her hands on Artemis’ shoulders in an attempt to shove the goddess off of her. 

“I know, I’m pretty attractive,” Artemis tries, wincing at the bad rebuttal the minute it comes out of her mouth. 

Zoë physically recoils, eyes shooting open and mouth open in a tiny o.

“That was bad,” Artemis admits, her face heating up, she buries her face into Zoë’s stolen hoodie to hide the embarrassment. 

“That was terrible,” Zoë corrects, uncurling a bit and throwing an arm over Artemis’ waist. 

“It wasn’t that bad,” Artemis whines, her entire body shaking with laughter. 

“I could feel my lifespan shorten,” Zoë deadpans, it was  _ that  _ bad.

“You’re immortal, love,” Artemis pulls away from her hiding spot, her cheeks still warmed with ichor, smiling cheekily at the older nymph. Artemis continues with a grin when Zoë doesn’t respond, switching subjects effortlessly, “I like your sweatshirt.”

“It’s thy’s,” Zoë scowls, “thee just likes seeing me in thy clothes.”

Artemis doesn't answer the subtle barb, instead, she surges forward and kisses her omega on the lips. Grinning when Zoë whines into it, gripping the back of her neck to hold the goddess in place. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo sorry for the suddenly dropping off of the face of the earth, had a bad two weeks. But I'm all better now, I'll be posting a bunch (like 14+) of chapters over the next few days to catch back up. Sorry if this chapter is crappy, I wanted to write something out of my comfort zone, so, yea. I don't know if you guys feel the same way I do, but if I read over anything I write, it sounds terrible, but I liked the concept and read through it once to get rid of any obvious mistakes. Anyway~ thank y'all so much for reading, I'll post at least one more today!


	8. Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In one normal lifetime, a bit less than a century, mortals gain an array of scars from little adventures in their dull lives. Compared to mortals, the life of a demigod is thousands of times more dangerous, constantly on the run until they reach a camp and fighting monsters whenever they find themselves being chased. And then there are the hunters of Artemis, who chase the monsters.

In one normal lifetime, a bit less than a century, mortals gain an array of scars from little adventures in their dull lives. Compared to mortals, the life of a demigod is thousands of times more dangerous, constantly on the run until they reach a camp and fighting monsters whenever they find themselves being chased. And then there are the hunters of Artemis, who chase the monsters.

Zoë’s been alive for roughly two millennia at least, unfortunately, the details get fuzzy if she thinks back to the start of her life; she doesn’t even remember her birth date. It’s easy to say that her skin is a canvas and her scars, the paint. She’s not self-conscious about it per se, almost every hunter has very visible scars, it’s hard not to feel comfortable when Fern sports a deep scar along her forehead or when Raven’s hands are littered with long healed cuts. 

But Zoë has the most by far. Logically, Artemis should have the most; always going out to hunt the more dangerous monsters by herself and more often than not challenging her sibling to spars to prove her ‘superiority’. One of the many perks of gods is their nearly indestructible skin, she only gains scars from wounds inflicted by her fellow immortals or by the use of celestial bronze. Sure monsters can leave them too, but they have to be pretty nasty to leave behind the tender tissue that results in scarring. So, yes, Zoë would have the most scars if the hunters were to have a constant. And they do.

Tonight was one of the many nights that the hunters compared scars and how they got them, often exaggerating the stories. They had been celebrating Fate's tenth year of being with them and naturally, they pointed out the still healing scar from a recent fight with a cyclops. Claiming that such a scar was sort of an initiation into the group, because a dangerous, possibly fatal, wound was something that they should congratulate people for. Zoë had had to resist scoffing. 

The night spiraled into the girls discarding various articles of clothing to show off their scars, presenting them proudly with an embellished story to go along with it. Atlanta’s battle with a shark that resulted in a few teeth marks along her wrist, she had one of the teeth on her necklace to prove it. Cora has a sand dollar shaped scar above her hip from when she decided to get in a fight with a mortal, the mortal had a shotgun and had held it a few inches away from the skin, he misfired. Kacela has a prosthetic foot (Raven made it for her) from when she was hung upside down in a cyclops’ lair, she cut it off to get away. How the child of Ares managed to have the resolve to do it, Zoë has no idea. 

Most of the girls knew not to ask their leaders about it, whether from being uninterested or pity varied. Artemis didn’t have very many, none of them were glaringly obvious. Zoë was littered with them, and most of the girls were either too scared to ask or felt bad for the eldest hunter. Zoë appreciated it, she doesn’t like to talk about them. Sure, she was proud of them, they were evidence of her devotion to both her goddess and her girls. But, plenty of them were reminders of long-dead hunters, sisters who died in battle, decided to settle down with a mortal or betrayed them. But Alex, new to the sisterhood of the hunt wasn’t aware of the unspoken agreement. 

“Do you have any interesting ones, Zoë?” Alex turned to the lieutenant with an expression akin to one of an excited puppy. Zoë hesitated, taking a long drink from her water bottle as she struggled to answer. It hadn’t gone past her that the chatter died down a bit and all of the girls turned to her expectantly, their faces filled with an odd combination of hope and worry.

“Does thee have any thee wants to ask about?” Zoë responded tightly, masking her discomfort the best she could. 

Alex’s eyes lit up along with the rest of the hunters, even Artemis looked a little excited, intrigued if anything. The youngest hunter placed her chin in her hand and furrowed her brow as she thought, eyes flickering over Zoë’s body as she tried to decide which one intrigued her the most. The child of Apollo’s eyes settled on Zoë’s clothed shoulder, “How’d you get the big bite mark on your shoulder?”

The lieutenant hummed as she gathered her thoughts, she gave herself a few extra seconds to think as she pulled on the collar of her shirt. She showed the huge bite mark on her left shoulder, the teeth indentations went all the way down to her mid-chest and wide enough to span from the edge of her shoulder to her collar bone. It is symmetrical on her back as well, but she designed not to show them. The scar tissue is a few shades lighter than her skin, tinged purple from the cold, and if any of the hunters looked close enough, they’d be able to see little stitch marks. Zoë received an interested ‘ooo’ from the crowd. 

“I got it a few centuries back, we were fighting a dozen or so hellhounds when one seemed to appear out of nowhere. We were already overwhelmed when the monster appeared, I was fighting two of the things at once when it attacked me. The guy latched onto my shoulder and swung me around like a chew toy. The hellhound ended up breaking my collarbone,” Zoë explained, idly tracing the shape of the monster's jaw over the bite mark. 

The camp went silent, all of the girls staring at Zoë until Alex shouted, “You suck at telling stories!”

Zoë blinked.

“That could’ve been so cool! Like, how did you get out of his grasp! Did somebody save you or were you a badass? What happened afterward? Did you start to bleed out? There are a lot of important veins there! Did anybody else get hurt?” Alex rambled, she threw her hands up in exasperation at the end of her rant, glaring at the confused nymph with disappointment. 

“Now there’s no need to be so rude Alex,” Moe berated the fuming daughter of Apollo, “If you had any sense at all you would have realized that nobody had asked either of our leaders about their scars, sure for different reasons, but you should’ve picked up on these hints. Zoë doesn’t like talking about them! She told you about one despite her discomfort so there’s no need to insult her for the way she told you.”

Zoë blushed, she hadn’t been aware the girls had picked up on her discomfort and actively avoided the topic. 

“Well how was I supposed to know that!” Alex protested, rubbing the back of her head, embarrassed, “All of you hunters have a bunch of unspoken rules!”

Artemis put a stop to the conversation, likely to turn to an argument before it escalated. Telling everybody it was late and that they were moving in the morning, so they’d best get some sleep. 

And here they were now. Zoë was laying under a mound of furs and blankets, patiently waiting for Artemis to join her. The goddess in question was idly finger combing through her hair, having recently taken the ponytail out and trying to make the kink that the base of her head less noticeable. 

“Are you okay, my huntress?” Artemis asked after a few moments of silence, turning to face the lounging nymph, fingers still threading through her hair. 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Zoë evaded the question, squirming a bit under her goddess’ gentle gaze and face heating slightly at the endearment. The olympian sighed at the deflection, remaining quiet as she joined her companion in bed. Adjusting the covers a bit - meaning: kicking the majority of them to the floor or the edge of the sleeping mat and leaving only a few over the both of them - but she didn’t lay down. Instead, she kneeled next to the taller girl, watching her shift wearily under her stare. 

“We both know what happened that day, you weren’t the only one to get hurt,” Artemis prompted, fingers toying with one of the furs, picking at the hairs. 

“I survived,” Zoë scowled, crossing her arms and curling up to hide from her goddess’ imploring eyes. 

“You know that’s not your fault,” Artemis murmured, hand reaching out and taking one of Zoë’s own captive, “Her neck was snapped, there was nothing I or even Apollo could do.”

“She was new, she shouldn’t have been fighting them, she was supposed to be watching from a safe distance,” Zoë whispered, her voice wet as tears started to well up in her eyes. The poor nymph, Astris, had only been with them for a few months before she passed. The girls had been so happy, so excited to be a part of the hunt, she always looked at Artemis with pure adoration, she was impossible not to grow attached to. And then she got killed. 

Zoë was still crying when Artemis started moving, laying down next to her distressed lieutenant and pulling her flush against her. They laid there for a while, it could’ve been an eternity, it could've been a few mere seconds. Zoë’s tears streaming silently down her face and Artemis’s worried expression staring back at her, her thumb brushing gently against the soft webbing between Zoë’s thumb and pointer finger. 

Artemis brought the hesperide’s hand up to her lips, kissing the fingertips and then a few on her palm. Her pale fingers gently encircling Zoë’s wrist, her eyes fixed on the others as she does. Kissing the scars on her hand, from when she still tended to Ladon and wasn’t careful of his acid. The goddess turned Zoë’s hand over and pressed her lips to each of her knuckles, kissing the rough skin there, little knicks built up from punch idiotic boys and sparring with the girls. Zoë’s tears slowed, puttering like an engine does when it gives out when her goddess gives her other hand is given the same treatment. 

“I understand why you don’t like talking about your scars, they bring up memories of when some of the others still lived,” Artemis said carefully, long pauses between some of the words as she pondered what exactly she was doing, “but none of their deaths is your fault. It pains me to see you agonize over these, and sure, a lot of these scars can be associated with bad memories or sad ones at the very least. But a lot of them can, and should be, associated with good memories.”

Artemis shifted slightly, dipping her head lower to press her lips against a cut along the inside of her forearm from a few years ago. When Raven had been experimenting on an explosive arrow and the arrow had exploded before leaving Zoë’s grasp. Artemis kept her lips pressed against the light skin as she continued to talk, “All of the girls loved you and I’m sure they wouldn’t want you to remember them with this sadness, they’d want you to remember all of the good memories. Even if all of the stupid things we got up to didn’t leave you with scars, it doesn’t mean you should forget about them.”

Zoë’s tears came sluggishly and hiccups rocked her body as she watched her goddess with wide eyes. The younger girl moved back to the lieutenant's other arm, giving a scar as big as a penny a quick kiss and declaring, “I love you!”

Zoë followed Artemis’s lead, allowing her Patreon to push her onto her back and moving her hands to Artemis’s hips when the goddess straddled her. The auburn-haired immortal gave Zoë a gentle smile, wiping the salty tears away with gentle brushes and leaning down to place a kiss on Zoë’s brow, where her tiara typically sits. The skin sits a bit uneven there, hardly noticeable and usually covered by the silver circlet. A tiny almost imperceptible scar from when Naomi had thrown a ball at Zoë and it had hit her in the head instead, the metal of the tiara digging into her flesh, drawing blood. “I love you.”

Next, Artemis kissed her on her neck, her larynx, where a knife has been held countlessly in different situations. From sparring to when she was held as a hostage, the monster attempted to trade for safe passage, “I love you.”

Artemis moved the hem of Zoë’s shirt to the side, pressing her lips against all of the indentations from the bite mark on her shoulder, a whispered declaration of love after every kiss. 

She pulled her shirt up, pushing it up her sternum and letting her cold fingers dance along the battle-worn skin, gooseflesh popping up behind the digits trail. She gave a peck to the scar a few inches to the left of her belly button where Fern had accidentally shot her with an arrow, “I love you.”

A line of kisses along a long scar on the right side of her midsection, just below her lungs, from when a foolish boy at Camp Half-Blood challenged her to a sword fight. Zoë shivered, that one was still sensitive, it was from a few months ago, “I love you.”

Artemis kept pressing kisses along Zoë’s upper body, switching areas at random and whispering a quiet ‘I love you,’ with each scar. Moving between the fading, irrelevant scars to the large ones that had been possibly fatal with no pattern. Fingers trailing behind each kiss, caressing the skin the goddess hadn’t paid attention to apologetically. 

Zoë’s entire body was humming and tears were long forgotten after a while, it’s been at least half an hour and Artemis was worshipping smaller scars now, scars that Zoë couldn’t remember how she got. Zoë’s hand shot down to grab Artemis by the back of the neck after the cheeky goddess placed a kiss on a tiny scar at her hip, likely from knocking it against a table. The goddess had pulled the waistband of her shorts down a bit to reach the slightly raised skin and held her lips there a second longer than usual all the while Zoë turned bright red, she could  _ feel  _ Artemis’ smirk on the sensitive skin there.

The lieutenant dragged the teasing goddess up, surging forward in order to capture Artemis’ lips in her own. The kiss didn’t last long, only a few seconds, but Zoë tugged gently on Artemis’ lip when she pulled away, a thing that always left her goddess adorably flustered. Artemis was breathing hard at the end of the quick kiss, gasping for breath despite her not needing it and her hand coming up to touch her lips. Her eyes were glazed slightly and she had a dreamy look on her face, Zoë couldn’t help but grin at her cute girlfriend.

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh, this was supposed to be a warm-up piece, it was supposed to take roughly an hour of my time and be like five hundred words, it turned into this monstrosity and took a lot longer than normal. Anyway, I'll be posting a few chapters over the next 24 hours in an attempt to catch up a bit. I've gotten them written just not edited. I also didn't have much time to edit this one, so any and all mistakes are mine. Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!


	9. The Raiders Return

Artemis spins a knife on the armrest of her throne idly, twisting it between her fingers lazily as one of the villagers drones on about how one of his neighbors won’t stop making noise. Honestly, the man should just challenge the other, maybe that would make her day a bit more interesting. At least in her opinion, but Athena, the leader of a neighboring clan and her sister, would disagree and give her an entire rant on how it was counterproductive to her time. 

The thrones beside her remain empty. One a twin to Artemis’ own, a beautiful wooden throne with paintings of different animals running across the wood, brown furs covering the seat to make the harsh wood more comfortable. At the head of the throne rests a pair of huge antlers that spiraled out and if the owner was to sit on the throne she would appear as a goddess, too beautiful for the mortal world. Beside it sits a simple brown throne, small enough for a child and with far fewer furs situated on it, a throne fit for a young heir. 

Unfortunately, she hasn’t seen her fellow clan leader, her love, her huntress for almost a year. And her hair is out and about, either sitting on watch with Phoebe like she is supposed to be or running away from the unfortunate warrior. If she focuses enough she can almost drown out the sound of the complaining villager and see her wife on the throne beside her. She can see the silky black hair tied back into a braid that falls just above her butt. She can see her dark chocolate like eyes sparkling with amusement and her head thrown back, mouth wide, in a gleeful laugh. She can see her fingers dancing against the armrest of the seat, nails tapping soundlessly in quiet discontent or twirling a knife between her fingers in idle boredom

She’s thrown out of her small daydream when the frustrated villager lets out a yell of frustration and looks at his clan leader with a look of expectancy, he’s finally done. Artemis mulls the problem over a bit, staring at the man coldly as she does; simply for the amusement of watching the annoying villager squirm. 

“Have you asked them to stop?” Artemis asks, refusing to break contact as the man drops his gaze, ashamed. 

“Well, no bu-”

Artemis cuts the man off with a hand gesture, it’s not the first time a similar problem arose and it won’t be the last time. The villagers would rather a guard or the jarl take care of the mess than themselves. The warrior leans back in her throne and plays with her knife some more, letting the coward sweat. 

“You will ask your neighbor yourself,” Artemis orders, her words slow and over-pronounced, “And if that doesn’t work, you will ask a nearby guard.”

“He will not listen!” The man protests, his face red and Artemis could see he seemed to be holding himself back from something.

“You don’t know that, you haven’t even asked,” Artemis waves her hand like the protest is an annoying fly, “Don’t bother me with such insignificant quarrels in the future.”

The man turns red and if Artemis were to look close enough, she figures she’d see steam coming from his ears. His hands curl into fists and his whole body shakes with barely restrained anger, “I will not let the bastard child of the king boss me around!”

“Restrain your tongue before I do it for you and be glad that we are the only ones here,” Artemis growls, leaning further into her chair and fixing the man with her coldest of glares, “Now leave, or do I need to call a guard?”

The man pales a bit but the fire remains, he works his jaw for a second before spitting at her feet. The wet glob of saliva slaps the ground loudly a few inches from Artemis’ boots and the jarl stares at it for a moment before facing the disrespectful villager again. The coward's back is to her as he walks out of the longhouse, his footsteps bouncing around the open room as he retreats. Artemis laughs, playing with her knife again, and the poor man’s footsteps quicken as he rushes out of the building. 

It’s not uncommon to get such insults from travelers, she assumes the man is new to town. That he isn’t aware of who else ruled the area of land with her and he only knew the run of the mill gossip about her. She stands from her chair, pausing to stretch her stiff limbs and slip the dagger into her boot. Artemis walks slowly through the tables, through the longhouse as she contemplates what to do with the disrespectful man. It wouldn’t do to have him walking through her clan, spreading the rumor that she is weak, that she doesn’t respond to such insults. 

“Cora,” Artemis says as she leaves the longhouse, turning to the guard on her left, “I want you to give him a bit of a scare, remind him why nobody messes with my clan.”

Cora nods excitedly, her blue eyes glowing brightly from under the glinting silver of her helmet, “Of course.”

“Keep the rest of the complaints away for a bit, I’m going for a walk,” Artemis continues, eyes staring at the houses in her villages as she talks.

“Sure, just remember the raiders are due any moment now, so come back soon,” Cora reminds her, a hint of teasing in her tone. Artemis nods absentmindedly, already starting to walk away from the longhouse, and away from her village. The raiders she’d sent out a year ago were supposed to return two weeks ago now, Zoë along with them. She hasn’t gotten a raven for at least a month, since they set sail and began to travel home, and Artemis can’t help but worry. What if they’d been attacked by pirates? What if there was a storm that capsized the longship? What if she never sees her lovely wife again. What if they’re dead.

“And, let’s keep this conversation to ourselves, yes?” Artemis calls over her shoulder. She doesn’t need to look back to know that Cora is nodding her assent and her partner, Fern, has rolled her eyes. 

Zoë stands at the back of the longship, eyes sweeping along the horizon and watching the black line slowly get larger. She is almost home. Beside her, Atlanta sits at the rudder, pushing on the piece of wood every so often to keep them heading towards land. In front of her the warriors sing, their voices marginally louder and more joyful than before despite their aching throats. Some of them are excited enough to get home that they’ve begun to tell stories about their loved ones, attempting to prove they have the most amazing family. 

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t thrilled to be almost home. She can’t wait to see her wife, Artemis, to see how long her hair has grown, if she’s cut it, if she’s fought in any more battles defending the clan, if she’s hunted any interesting animals. She can’t wait to see Alex, a young girl that they’ve made their heir, to hear about the adventures she’s gotten up to, if she’s finally bested Moe in an arm-wrestle, if she listens and obeys Phoebe, or anyone for that matter, yet. 

Zoë adjusts her armor a bit, it wouldn’t do good for a jarl to return to her clan looking so rumpled. Although she’s sure anyone can see her raccoon eyes and the dullness of her armor. She can feel Thalia’s eyes on her but doesn’t bring attention to the snooping girl, instead waiting for her sister-in-law to speak her mind. She doesn’t have to wait long.

“Excited to get home?” Thalia calls out after a while, the black line that’d been on the horizon is closer and Zoë can see the faint outline of mountains now. 

“It’s been a long time since I’ve set foot on familiar territory,” Zoë evades the question. 

Thalia scowls playfully at her leader, but crosses her leans forward with determination in her eyes, “What will you do?”

“I’m sure your sister has a feast planned for when we return, so I’ll be taking care of your drunk ass I’m sure,” Zoë responds, grinning smugly when the warriors around Thalia laugh. Thalia flushes, bringing a hand up to play with her short, untraditional, hair. 

“So you won’t, oh I don’t know, kiss our lovely jarl?” Thalia teases, glaring half-heartedly at her superior. 

“Who knows?” Zoë responds, shifting her eyes from Thalia to the growing landmass on the horizon. She can feel the tips of her ears burning but is certain no one can tell the red of her face is from embarrassment, the biting cold has turned everybody's cheeks a vibrant crimson.

“Quit evading Zoë, just tell us if you’ve got any plans,” Kacela calls from one of the rows, luckily for her, unlucky for Zoë, she has a helmet on, preventing Zoë from glaring at the snoopy girl. 

“I have plans, one that includes you standing guard at the longhouse for a day and Thalia sitting inside and listening to all of the complaints that have built up since I’ve been gone,” Zoë laughs. Plans that include locking herself and her wife in their hunting cabin miles away from the village for a week and catching up after a year of being apart. 

“ZOË!” A child screams and Zoë spins on her heel to identify where the excited voice is coming from. The boxes she’s carrying threaten to topple as little footsteps pound against the wood of the dock unevenly. 

Atlanta quickly relieves Zoë of her burden, just in time for Zoë to catch the running child. The jarl spreads her arms wide and squats so she’s at the same height as the young heir as she barrels into Zoë’s waiting arms. Zoë wraps her arms around the small body and hugs as tightly as she can, laughing quietly when the young girl buries her face into the armor on Zoë’s armor. That definitely isn’t very comfortable for her.

Zoë holds her heiress against her, pressing a kiss against Alex’s hair before pulling away to look at her face. Alex definitely looks older, her face has lost some of its baby fat and her hair is starting to grow out. It falls past her eyes, almost reaching her nose instead of the buzzcut she had when Zoë left. The heiress has also started to gain a bit of muscle and has a few pieces of armor adorning her outfit, she even has her own bow. 

“Alex,” Zoë breaths, her hands on the child's shoulders, her fingers digging into the fur coat. She’s so grown-up, there’s a new scar on her face, on her jaw, small but there. Zoë wonders if the heiress had got it during training or if she’d fought in a battle yet. 

“You’re late,” Alex scowls, seeming to remember that she wanted to be mad at the returned jarl, “You made mama sad,” the little girl crossed her arms and took a step away from Zoë and out of her reach.

Zoë froze for multiple reasons, her mind overheating and shutting down, she silently mouthed ‘mama’ in a mixture of confusion and absolute happiness. Her brain both confused at why Alex had used the name but also so happy, Alex had called Artemis ‘mama’. 

“Oh, look at that, you broke her,” Thalia materializes behind Zoë with another box full of supplies in hand. Zoë’s brain is still malfunctioning, mouthing the words ‘mama’ over and over and over while she stares at Alex with pure happiness. 

Alex gasps, covering her mouth with her hands and rushes forward, tears gathering in her eyes, “I didn’t mean to! How do I fix her?”

“Relax little warrior, she just needs a good punch to the face, that’ll fix her,” Thalia jokes, bending down to place her box on the ground, before standing up. The girl stretches, shaking out her fist and prepares herself dramatically before she announces, “Don’t worry, I’ll do it, one quick punch in the nose will have her working good as new!”

“You will do no such thing,” Artemis’ voice rings out over the docks while Thalia starts to wind her arm back. Zoë snaps out of her daze and leaps to her feet, eyes locking onto her wife’s almost immediately and her happiness triples. There her wife is, her partner in crime, her best friend, dressed in armor and walking towards her like a king among peasants. 

“Artemis,” Zoë whispers, tears welling up in her eyes, gods she missed her wife so much. She walks slowly, meeting her wife in the middle and ignoring the wolf-whistles from around her and Phoebe gently coaxing Alex away from her adoptive parents, trying to get the young girl to return to her classes. 

“Zoë,” Artemis returns just as reverently, her hands already on the sides of the taller girl's face and pulling Zoë towards her. Zoë dips her head forward and closes the distance between their lips. 

Gods, Zoë missed Artemis so much. She missed Artemis' aloof attitude. She missed her soft lips and her pale skin. She missed her auburn hair and she missed braiding it each morning. She missed eating meals with the love of her life. She missed sharing a bed with her best friend. She missed ruling over their small clan together. She missed fighting beside her side. She missed her wife.

Artemis is the one to pull away from the soft kiss, hands still on Zoë’s face and her forehead against Zoë’s. Like she was afraid that if she let go, Zoë would disappear. The older girl kept her eyes closed, her heart racing and her rapid breaths ghosting against Artemis’ lips.

“This is your fault,” Artemis murmurs once she’s gained control over her breathing.

“How exactly?” Zoë laughs quietly, her hands on Artemis’ hips, keeping her wife pressed against her. 

“You were standing there all adorable looking and I couldn’t  _ not  _ kiss you,” Artemis kisses Zoë again like it proves a point. Which, it probably did and even if it didn’t, well, Zoë would agree simply if it meant Artemis would keep kissing her. But Artemis isn’t done, “I intended to wait for a more private moment to kiss you, but you just had to ruin all of my plans.”

“How about you let me finish putting all of this gear away and I’ll let you kiss me as much as you want, wherever you want?” Zoë offers, her thumbs running along the leather of Artemis’ belt.

“We have a feast tonight,” Artemis frowns, her hands moving from Zoë’s cheeks to behind her neck.

“After that,” Zoë laughs.

“Alright, I’ll find you,” Artemis smiles, nodding happily with the compromise, knocking her head against Zoë’s own in the process. She presses a quick kiss to Zoë’s lips once more before marching away to continue preparations. Zoë stares after the jarls retreating figure with a dopey grin on her face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like the end sorta strayed from my initial plan, but whatever, it is what it is. I only reread this once, so any and all mistakes are mine, sorry. Anyway, would any of y'all join a discord server if I made one? Tell me if you'd join the server and how you like Norse Zartemis in the comments! Thanks for reading!


	10. Six Years of Waiting

They dated in high school, when the expectations of the adult world hadn’t yet reached them and their parents thought they were simply friends. Before Zoë was betrothed to Hercules and Artemis to Orion. Before Zoë ran away with her little sister and Artemis moved to the other side of the world. Before real life caught up to them.

Zoë was the heiress of a multinational airline company, her father unable to produce a male heir choose her, his favorite, to take over the family company. Artemis was Zoë’s competition, her father owned an up and coming airline company and her uncles all owned other transportation services (Boats and Cars), they were slowly monopolizing the transportation economy. 

They first learned of each other's engagements in junior year of high school, they were both marrying into each other's families, an attempt to merge; Zoë’s father had told her. Artemis was to marry one of Zoë’s distant relatives and Zoë was to marry Artemis’ half-brother.

They fought it for a few months, arguing that if the two were to get married, there would be similar results. Both families were too old-fashioned, it wasn’t like the hopeful girls hadn’t noticed the looks sent their way whenever they were together. But they ignored them, pretended they didn’t know that the majority of their families were homophobic. They thought they could change their minds, Zoë guesses love really did make them blind. 

Zoë gave up after a few months, Artemis not too soon after, and they lived in their own little bubble for the next year, pretending that they wouldn't break up after graduation. Pretending that they didn’t see the pitying looks their sibling gave them or the metaphorical rain cloud that constantly loomed over their heads.

They broke up the day after graduation, at the airport before Artemis was shipped off to Greece for school, leaving Zoë behind. Zoë married Hercules in her first year of college and was married to the bastard for years, despite her knowledge of his nighttime activities. 

It was impossible not to see each other, Zoë was invited to all of the major family dinners as Hercules’ plus one, always sitting to the left of her husband awkwardly. Avoiding being alone with Artemis - although it wasn’t that hard as her ex-girlfriend seemed just as committed - and eye contact with anyone who knew of her past relationship. So everybody. 

She remained in the shadows on those days, talking only when spoken to and giving tight smiles to anybody who looked her way. But she wouldn’t say it didn’t hurt when the person she thought of as the love of her life refused to look at her. She felt her heart shatter all over whenever Artemis fled from a room with a half-baked excuse. 

Zoë finally snapped after catching Hercules in bed with some random girl, who he likely picked up from a bar, on their monthly date night. They’d already agreed that the terrible man she called a husband could have as many mistresses as he liked so long as they kept up appearances, i.e monthly dates. She’s not even sure he even noticed that she saw them, too busy fucking the blonde into the mattress, but she tossed her keys on the counter and left him a note, slamming the door behind her when she left. 

Her father wouldn’t let her divorce the man, refusing to let her destroy all of  _ his  _ hard work. Zoë had scoffed and told him she was doing it anyway, and that she wasn’t going to listen to him anymore, she was a goddamned adult. Atlas disowned her, kicking her out of the family and her taking her place as heir. Zoë took Calypso with her, both to protect her youngest sister, only a Sophomore in high school, and as a fuck you to her dad. She cut all ties with her family and her past life. 

She managed to scrape enough money together to buy a crappy two-room apartment in a fairly nice neighborhood. She took a job as a Business Risk Consultant rather easily due to her previous job with her father and was able to start putting money in Calypso’s college fund and live comfortably. She even got a puppy!

It was her second year living in the same apartment when Artemis showed up. Calypso was in her room working on school work and Zoë was in the process of making supper when somebody knocked on her door. Ladon leaped up from his spot on the couch and started barking at the door, loudly. Zoë winced, already imagining all of the noise complaints she’d get and the apologies she’d have to issue. 

“Calypso! Get the door!” Zoë yelled, gliding through the kitchen and grabbing a dog treat from under the sink and whistled towards Ladon, “here boy, here boy.”

“Why can’t you?” Calypso groaned from the other side of the apartment. 

“Because I’m distracting  _ your _ dog,” Zoë held the treat out in the air, swinging it from side to side like it made it more appetizing. Ladon, who was still a puppy, yipped excitedly, the person at the door forgotten in favor of a delicious treat. The dark-haired girl tossed the fake bone onto the couch and Ladon raced after it, his paws slipping against the hardwood flooring as he went. Zoë turned back to the pasta, the water almost boiling over.

“Who are you?” Calypso asked after opening the door, Zoë’s definitely going to have a conversation about proper greetings after their impromptu guest leave. 

“Does Zoë Nightshade live here?” The person's voice is muffled slightly but they have a feminine tone. 

“Zoë, somebody is here for you!” Her sister called, before she appeared in the living room, reaching out for her dog. Zoë rolled her eyes, guess she was going to talk about not leaving the door open for strangers also needed to be talked about. 

“I’ll be there in a sec,” Zoë told the stranger, turning the burner off so nothing lights a fire and wiping her hands on a dishtowel while she leaves the kitchen.

Standing in her doorway, looking incredibly uncomfortable was Artemis. She was bundled in both a sweatshirt and a winter coat, there was a hat slipping off her head and she had a scarf wrapped snugly around her neck. Her hair was messy, like she’d just been in a fight, and her cheeks were flushed from the cold. Her eyes were puffy and rimmed red like she’d been crying. She looked beautiful and adorable and amazing. 

It was the first time Zoë had seen her in two years and the first time Artemis actually looked at her since highschool. And all Zoë could do was breathe out, “Artemis.”

“I know it’s sudden, but I need somewhere to stay, and you were the only person I could think of, and I completely understand if you want me to leave, I’ve been a real jerk to you over the past few years,” Artemis rambled and she looked on the verge of crying or hyperventilating or both. 

Zoë remained silent, but stepped out of the doorway and opened it more, a clear invitation. She wasn’t mad or anything like that, in fact, she was overjoyed, old feelings resurfacing and she definitely wouldn’t leave a friend out in the cold, ex or not.

“Thank you so much!” Artemis’ shoulders deflated like all of her burdens suddenly disappeared. She rushed into the warmth of the apartment, and systematically shed her layers, removing her snow-covered boots and placing them on the mat, dropping her bag in the corner and unwinding her scarf. Zoë watched quietly, holding her arms out for the coat when Artemis finally took it off, she hung the stuff in their closet and ignored Calypso’s burning eyes.

“How did you find me, I’ve be-” Zoë began, but let out a quiet ‘oof’ when she suddenly had an emotional ex-girlfriend attached to her. The auburn-haired girl buried her face into Zoë neck like she used to so long ago whenever she felt overwhelmed. 

“Hermes told me,” Artemis’ voice was thick and sure enough, she felt the fabric of her shirt dampen from her highschool sweetheart's tears. Zoë’s heart screamed at her, and Zoë acted without thinking, pulling the distraught girl from her hiding spot and placing a kiss on her forehead. Her lips remained pressed against the other girl's skin for a few seconds longer than necessary and she heard Calypso’s quiet gasp from behind her. 

Zoë turned red once she realized what she’d just done and pulled away from the younger girl fully, leaving a foot of space between them. She was tempted to jump right back into Artemis’ arms when she saw the flash of disappointment. 

Zoë cleared her throat and felt the tips of her ears warm when she glanced back at her little sister, “Right, I’m making spaghetti, if you still like that you are welcome to eat with us and I’ll set the couch up for you after supper?”

Artemis nodded, her fingers pressed against the spot where Zoë had kissed her. Zoë felt like her head was going to explode from her embarrassment, so she hurried to the kitchen and away from prying eyes.

They didn’t talk about the forehead kiss or why Artemis had been crying that night, or many nights after that. But Zoë had a feeling that what happened to her with Hercules had happened to Artemis. Though Athena, Apollo, and Hermes visited their sister at least once a week, so maybe her father was a bit more accepting. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, get ready for an overload of prompts being sent your way, I want to get as close to finishing all 30 prompts by the end of the month as I can, some might be shorter than others because I'm gonna switch between longer ones and shorter ones to keep my brain from drifting too much. ANYway, hope y'all have a wonderful turkey day if you celebrate, thank you for reading!


	11. Arena Star

“You said it was going to be an easy fight,” The voice was full of such malice and hatred, something Zoë rarely heard from the owner of the voice, that she felt herself tense. Zoë looked up towards the figure standing in the doorway. She was dressed in a long, white chiton, her arms were crossed and she was leaning against the door. The gladiator could see her tensed arm muscles from a few feet away. Her auburn hair was tied up in a sloppy bun, something that was rare for the usually put together goddess, and her chest was heaving. Did she run here?

Zoë sighed, “I know, the guy was a lot tougher than I thought.”

“You said it would be quick, that you wouldn’t get hurt,” Artemis’ voice cracked, and she shifted slightly, the white silk of her chiton whispering against her skin.

“That wasn’t the warrior they told me I would be fighting,” Zoë admitted, glancing at her bloodied hands, bruises already bloomed on her knuckles, “It’s a tactic they use to make the fights more extreme, telling you you’ve got an easy fight and pairing you up with somebody way out of your class.”

“That,” Zoë kept her eyes on her hands while her lover talked, “that’s not allowed is it?”

“No rule against it,” Zoë traced one of the cuts with a finger, hissing when the exposed skin was touched. 

“Zoë,” Her voice was pained, but Zoë wouldn’t, couldn’t, look the younger girl in the eyes, ashamed, “My family was there, I had to sit there, emotionless, while you were beaten to the ground, I couldn’t do  _ anything _ .”

Zoë flinched, she’d been aware of the rest of the Olympians being there, she’d gotten cocky, tried to show off. It was probably another reason why she’d gotten so hurt, “I know, I’m sorry,” The gladiator, dropped her hands and focused on the water basin on the opposite side of the room instead, “At least I won, you're shiny gladiator didn’t lose, didn’t embarrass you in front of your family.” 

“I don’t care if you lose or win!” Artemis yelled. The room was left in a tense silence, filled only with the auburn-haired girl's heavy breathing. Zoë tipped her head down, ashamed. But Artemis was done, “I care if you get hurt. I hate seeing you like this.”

Zoë didn’t have to look at her Patreon to know she was gesturing to the mess that was her. Blood sluggishly seeping into the thin fabric she wore as clothes and staining the furs on her bed. Bruises littering her body from when her opponent had decided to use the hilt of his sword to cause more damage, or when Zoë finally got rid of his weapon and he resorted to his fists and kicks. She looked like shit to put it lightly. 

“I don’t know what I’ll do if you die in one of these stupid fights,” Artemis whispered, loud enough that Zoë barely heard it. 

The gladiator finally looked at the girl and it almost broke her heart. Artemis was shaking like a leaf in the wind. She was hugging herself, holding herself together, like if Zoë were to touch her she would shatter like glass. Tears rolled down her face, leaving salty rivers behind, and onto the ground. 

“I’m alive, and I don’t plan on leaving you anytime soon,” Zoë promised, giving the weeping girl a gentle smile and patting the bed beside her encouragingly, “How about you let me patch myself up a bit, just so I’m not bleeding everywhere, and we can cuddle.”

Artemis shuddered, standing up straight and wiping the tears from her face quickly before nodding. Zoë watched her, trying to make her face as welcoming as possible despite the pain of smiling, her split lip whining in protest and her bruised jaw groaning. The auburn-haired girl made her way over stiffly, still hugging herself with one arm as she tried to erase the remnants of her tears with the other. 

“Just give me a few minutes to clean myself up, and then I’m yours,” Zoë reassured, standing up and pressing a kiss to the shorter girl's forehead, ignoring the pain that came with the pressure against her lips. The gladiator pushed Artemis towards the bed, trying to get her to sit while she waited. 

Zoë went to the basin, and wet a piece of cloth, wringing it out and began the excruciating process of cleaning sand out of her cuts and the blood from her skin. She hissed whenever the rough fabric ran over a particularly deep or fresh cut, gritting her teeth when she had to scrub the dried blood off. 

She had moved on to bandaging the still bleeding ones with cheap bandages when she felt a presence behind her. She paused, the process of bandaging her hand slowing as she waited for the girl behind her to do something. The hairs on the back of her neck standing up when she felt Artemis move closer yet, her slightly uneven breathing ghosting against the bare skin of her back. 

Arms slowly wrapped around her midsection, cold fingers trailing along the slightly raised skin from scarring and the newly placed bandages. Zoë felt herself relax a bit when she felt Artemis pull herself against her, her arms tightening around her abdomen and holding the gladiator against her. 

Zoë resumed the wrapping after a few seconds of silence, letting Artemis hold her, and letting Artemis gather her thoughts. She leaned down and ripped the cloth with her teeth, tucking the loose end in and shifting her attention to her upper arm, where a particularly nasty gash laid. The older girl felt herself jump slightly when a pair of soft lips started peppering kisses along the side of her neck, along with the gentle humming of a lullaby. Had the fight really scared Artemis that much?

“Promise me you’ll be more careful?” Artemis murmured against her shoulder, her arms tightening ever so slightly as she asked.

“I’ll try me best,” Zoë vowed, she couldn’t promise to always be safe, or that she wouldn’t get hurt. Her job was to fight, both for her lover and for herself, she didn’t have any money nor a home, the arena was how she survived. Sure it was dangerous, a couple of people died each day, but it gave her a bed to sleep in and food to eat, not to mention it’s how she met Artemis. She didn’t find herself regretting it.

“Thank you,” The younger girl mumbled, pressing one more kiss on Zoë's shoulder before shifting, resting her brow on the place where Zoë’s neck met her back. They stayed like that for a while, Artemis hugging her while Zoë treated her wounds. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, this is very inspired by Arena Stars, the first Zartemis fic that I wrote and eventually deleted because it wasn't formatted correctly and progressed way too fast. I'm currently trying to decide if I want to re-write it after I finish every other fic idea that I have, so... like at least a couple of months. Anyway, I'll ask again, would anybody be interested in joining a Zartemis discord server, I don't want to make one if nobody is interested, but I would love to talk and bounce idea's off of y'all. Thanks for reading and until the next one!


	12. Movie Night

It isn’t often that the hunters stay at Olympus, it’s one of those things that people want to do up until they’re actually doing it. Satyrs always swarm the entrance to Artemis’ palace whenever they hear that the goddess is there. They camp outside the doors, eager to serve their goddess in any way they can.

The minor gods don’t really like the hunters, they like to think that the hunters' part- immortality is a personal insult to them. Which, no, they aren’t that important, Artemis wouldn’t make a bunch of tweens immortal simply to piss off a bunch of immortals. If Artemis wanted to piss the depressing bunch of them off, she’d simply insult their domain in public, or their godhood. 

The Olympians get oddly excited whenever Artemis is at Olympus too. Apollo would attempt to join the hunters in whatever they were doing, claiming that he would behave himself, he never did. Hermes is Apollo’s best friend so of course, he would join them, under the pretense of needing to deliver a few packages. He always ended up roping the girls into playing some type of board game. 

Athena would make an appearance at least twice during the endeavor, first to confirm that Artemis was actually there and then returning later to discuss whatever she’d been researching at the time with the goddess. A goddess who would get bored and send her excited sister to Zoë, who indulged Athena due to her being one of the few Olympians who didn’t despise her. 

Aphrodite would show up intending to stay for five minutes and not-so-subtly insult each of the hunters for deciding to become maidens. Ares would follow like a puppy, and end up staying the entire time while chatting with some of the girls about their recent monster fights. And if Ares was staying, so was Aphrodite, so Aphrodite sat next to Apollo, gossiping whenever the sun god was willing to listen. 

Dionysus would show up next, somehow convincing Hephaestus to join them, and bring a few bottles of Olympian wine because ‘Only Artemis truly appreciates it,’. So all of the Olympians ended up getting a bit tipsy by the end of the night. Hephaestus always migrated to either Raven, Hermes’ bored game, or Athena, often rotating between the three throughout the night. 

Hestia always showed up at some random time, seamlessly blending in with the rest of the hunters so nobody really knew when she got there. Occasionally dragging a slightly apprehensive Hera along with her, Hera only really came after Zeus had another affair though. 

Zeus stopped showing up after the first few times, claiming that he couldn’t stand to be near his sworn-enemies daughter, Artemis kicked him out after he started flirting with her hunters. 

Demeter occasionally joins if both Hestia and Hera are there, dragging Persephone with her, claiming her daughter needs to mingle with immortals her own age. Hades joins them whenever Persephone does, usually sitting in a dark corner and talking with Artemis, Persephone and Phoebe (for some reason). 

With almost every olympian there, of course, Poseidon comes, not wanting to be left out of the impromptu party. It’s like clockwork. The hunters love it, Zoë does not. 

These little parties always entail Zoë running around, making sure the hunters don’t drink Olympian wine, giving Apollo a glare whenever he starts to flirt with anybody, preventing Hephaestus and Raven from blowing anything up. So she should reiterate her previous statement, everybody but she enjoys the visits to Olympus. 

Unfortunately, tonight happened to be one of the few nights that Artemis decided to bring them to Olympus. Of course, everybody was excited, the hunters that have survived a visit to Olympus excited for the chaos and the newer ones excited to see the home of the gods. 

The hunters of Artemis were lounging in Artemis’ huge living room, some playing cards and others simply napping. It set Zoë on edge, it was the calm before the storm. Artemis was out discussing plans for a new bow concept with Hephaestus and it was only a matter of minutes before the knowledge that Artemis was here spread. Zoë estimated she had an hour of peace, of quiet, of relaxation. There was one plus to coming to Olympus, it meant she could relax for a bit, she didn’t have to worry about the hunters starting a forest fire or a random monster attack.

Zoë decided to use her few minutes of peace by reading, spread out on the floor with her book in the air and a pillow behind her head. Logically she should’ve half-way through her book by now and floating peacefully in the clouds of relaxation. But she wasn’t.

“Zoë?” Alex called in a whisper-yell from a few feet away from the lieutenant’s splayed out form. 

Zoë hummed in response, dropping her book to her chest and turning her head to face the needy hunter. The newest hunter was sitting against one of the chairs, a hand of cards in one of her hands, the other playing with a sleeping Moe’s hair, the sleepy hunter seemed to have passed out in Alex’s lap.

“Does thee need help moving Moe?” Zoë asked, gesturing the slumbering girl in question when Alex didn’t finish her question, getting distracted by Rosa and Fern who urged her to play her hand. 

“Oh,” Alex flushed, looking down at her friend in surprise, like she forgot she was there, “No, she’s fine. I was actually wondering when Artemis would get back?”

“I’m not sure,” Zoë responded, turning back to her book already, hoping that Alex would get distracted again and let her read in peace.

“She didn’t tell you?” Alex said quietly, placing a card in the pot between her, Rosa and Fern before turning to Zoë with big eyes. 

Zoë folded the corner of her page and tossed the book aside, resigned to her fate, “No, she just told me that she was going to be gone for a bit and to ‘hang out’ while she was gone.”

Alex nodded, biting her lip and focusing back on the game, eyes flickering from Rosa’s hand to the pile to her own. Zoë rolled unceremoniously onto her stomach and crawled over to Alex, plopping herself behind the young hunter and peering over her shoulder.

“What’re thee playing?” Zoë questioned, scanning Alex's cards silently.

“BS,” Alex replied, shifting a bit to the side so the lieutenant could see all of the cards easily, “It’s where you place down a bunch of cards of the same number and say that you’re placing down so many cards but the thing is you can-”

“I know how to play,” Zoë laughed, pointing to two cards, but using three fingers, bending one down in an attempt to trick the others, “Play these ones.”

“Two Sevens,” Alex obeyed, placing the seven and the three on the deck solemnly. 

“Hey! You can’t have Zoë’s help!” Rosa protested, placing the cards on the floor in front of her and crossing her arms. She pouts and her pointy ears droop slightly in forced sadness. Zoë rolls her eyes at the poor acting.

“Yeah, she’s ridiculously good at card games!” Fern agreed, glaring at the two girls from behind her hand of cards.

“She’s losing by a lot, I think thee’ll survive,” Zoë murmured, already looking at the rest of Alex’s cards, adjusting the hand so she can see hidden cards. 

. . . 

“Nooo,” Cora whined, throwing her cards on the ground face up and falling onto her back. The mortal covered her face with her hands, groaning into them as Zoë silently gathered the cards back up, beside her Fern pats Cora’s shoulder sympathetically.

“Would thee like to play another round?” Zoë laughed, shuffling the cards while she talked, “We could up the stake a bit more, six weeks on night watch?”

“I’m going to be on night watch for years to come if this keeps up,” Fern sighed, but remained seated, fiddling with the bottom of her jeans as she waited for the hesperide to deal the cards.

“It doesn’t even matter if you lose!” Cora’s voice comes out muffled, her face still covered by her hands, “You’re playing for Alex!”

“If thee wins, I’ll take all of the night watches thee has racked up,” Zoë offered, the quiet shuffle of the deck the only sound in the huge room for a few seconds as the girls took in Zoë’s offer. 

Cora sat up once she registered Zoë’s offer, suddenly  _ very  _ excited to play, “You’ll take three and a half months' worth of night shifts if either of us wins?” 

Zoë nodded, grinning at the excited hunters in front of her. 

“Hold up, you mean I’ll take three-plus months of night watch,” Alex interrupted, glaring at the lieutenant. 

Zoë sighed, “What are thee talking about, of course I meant  _ I  _ would take all of the night shifts.”

Zoë had fully intended on giving the night shifts to Alex. 

“To confirm,  _ you  _ Zoë Nightshade, lieutenant of Artemis, former hesperide, will take three months and two weeks of night shift, back to back, if either Fern or myself, Cora, win a game of your choice against you?” Cora was grinning ear to ear and had an excited sparkle in her eye, a sparkle she got before she set Camp Half-Blood on fire. Zoë had a suspicion that she was a descendant of Hermes for how well she got along with Phoebe. 

“...Yes,” Zoë conceded, placing the thoroughly shuffled deck of cards between the three of them. 

“Wonderful, Fern, you got all that?” Cora clapped her hands together, turning to her new partner in crime. Fern held an old fashioned tape recorder up in hand with a shy, almost impossible to see the smile. 

“Alright, so now that there’s no way to weasel out of it, what game are we playing?” 

The game was a lot quicker than the previous ones, Zoë already aware of the two girls’ tells and easily dominates the game. Faking nervousness when she played truthful hands and remaining emotionless when she lied, occasionally switching the two up to keep her opponents on their toes. 

Zoë played her last card twenty-two minutes after the start of the game, slapping it onto the growing pile with a gleeful, “one queen!”

Cora and Fern freeze, eyeing the card with a look of hatred before both calling out a quick, “Bullshit!”

Their devious lieutenant laughed and flipped the top card around to reveal a queen of hearts. The queen stares mockingly at the losing girls, her black crown shining from the overhead light and her vibrant red cloak billowed out behind her as she smirked at the ceiling.

“Well, make sure to tell Naomi when thee wants to be on night watch, thee owes me one month-” A bright silver light invaded the space, waking the sleeping hunters and blinding the ones that were unfortunate enough to have their eyes open, “-each, preferably before the end of the year,” Zoë told them, it seemed reasonable, thirty nights of less than six hours of sleep spread out over four months. It wouldn’t do good to have them back to back, she couldn’t have her hunters nodding off throughout the day because they weren’t getting enough sleep.

“What's this about the end of the year?” Artemis bound over to the small circle of hunters, collapsing onto the chair behind Alex with a loud thump.

“They lost a small bet to me, I’m simply reminding them of what happened if I won,” Zoë explained, relaxing into Artemis’ hands when the goddess starts to play with the loose hairs from her braid. 

“What did you play?” The Olympian tilted her head, studying the queen of hearts on the top of the deck. 

“B.S!” Cora whined, “Why did you tell us she was good at cards, she won every single round!”

“Did you now?” Artemis chuckled, scratching at the base of Zoë’s braid gently, the goddess was well aware of the elder girl's card skills. 

“Alex technically won the first three games, I was simply helping,” Zoë leaned further into her goddess’ hand, her eyes slipping closed and a tiny hum escaping her traitorous lips. 

“What were the stakes?” The patron of the hunt turned back to the surrounding hunters, lips curving up slightly as Zoë started to doze off.

“The pot kept racking up the more we played, two, then four, then eight and finally Zoë would get fourteen weeks of night shift,” Cora explained, but her voice faded, getting more and more distant as Zoë felt herself slip into unconsciousness. That was until.

“Artemis!” an unmistakably male voice yelled excitedly, jolting Zoë fully awake. The sleep-confused hesperide frowned, rubbing at her eyes to wake herself up more. She looked around her, Fern and Cora had shifted to the other side of the room and were in the process of playing another card game with Phoebe and Rosa. Alex was still sitting against the chair, playing idly with Moe’s hair, unperturbed by the random scream that had woken Zoë from her slumber. Maybe she had imagined it?

But then she spotted the annoyingly bright god, Apollo. He was standing at the back of the biggest couch, dressed it a black leather jacket, flannel under that and a vibrant white crew neck below that. His avatars were pushed up and into his hair while he smiled brightly at Zoë - well Artemis, who happened to be directly behind the groggy and slightly crabby hunter - like he wanted to personally blind her with those perfectly white teeth. 

“Did you really have to yell, brother?” Artemis said from behind her, Zoë had to resist whining when the goddess removed her hand from her hair. 

“Yep! Gotta keep you hunters on your toes,” Apollo chuckled at a joke that he probably thought was funny. Zoë rolled her eyes, clambering to her feet quickly and yawning, stretching to get the remaining effects of sleep out of her mind and body.

“Well, if you plan on staying, please remember the rules, no flirting, no poems and no singing,” Artemis reminded, listing the rules on her fingers and holding the three digits out. Zoë winced, wanting to glare Artemis but settling with Apollo. And so the night begins. At least the rest of the hunters look excited. 

. . .

Hermes made an appearance next as predicted, balancing five boxes stacked on top of each other and a mischievous grin. Somehow, in what couldn’t have been more than half an hour, Apollo had managed to annoy Artemis enough that the female twin had momentarily retreated to one of the nearby bathrooms and wormed his way into joining Cora’s card game. 

“I’m just making a few deliveries, and then I’ll be out of your hair,” Hermes promised the lieutenant, unable to spot his much more welcoming sister. He wandered around the room slowly, handing Moe a box that was the same size as a pillow and probably a pillow too. He gave Cora a smaller box, not much bigger than Zoë’s hand, and the two shared a mischievous smile. He whispered something in her ear that made the mortal laugh before moving along. Zoë would be asking what exactly was in that box later, and possibly confiscating it. Fate was given a medium size box and immediately revealed it to be a harmonica, Zoë made a mental note to confiscate that as well before the child of apollo gave them all headaches. 

“The big box is for Raven, and assuming from its weight, it’s probably some building parts and the other ones for Artemis,” Hermes explained as he walked up to the lounging lieutenant, “I’ll just leave them over here and you can move them later?”

Zoë remained silent, staring the younger immortal down in hopes that he would leave before Artemis returned. Sure she could be nicer to the Olympians, especially the second generation due to them having less prejudice against her, but she really did not want to deal with more than one of them at a time. 

“Oookaay, I guess I’ll be leaving now, it’s really been a pleasure Zoë, until next time,” Hermes told her, rubbing the back of his neck and his eyes darting across the room; never settling on one place for too long. 

Artemis decided to finally reappear right before the messenger god left, Zoë groaned loudly, not even bothering with trying to hide it. She moved over to the group quickly, “You will do no such thing!” Zoë’s goddess interrupted, “You must catch me up on Olympus’ latest events, Apollo was terrible at catching me up.”

Zoë collapsed back onto a nearby couch, might as well prepare for the other that will undoubtedly be joining them soon. 

. . .

“Alex! Thou are not starting a band with Apollo!”

. . .

“Phoebe nor any of the other hunters need a basic prank set Hermes, are thee trying to make my life harder?”

. . .

“Artemis, couches are meant for sitting, not balancing contests!”

. . .

Zoë was already exhausted by the time Athena made her  _ first  _ appearance. Everybody was or had been eliminated from participating in a handstand contest. And Zoë had taken the very much needed - if multiple bruises and one small cut on somebody's foot was any proof - role of the supervisor. Most of the girls had been eliminated immediately, and then the stragglers who remained slowly dropped out, occasionally bumping into other (the entire reason for all the small injuries that Apollo  _ promised  _ to fix once he won) until only Hermes, Artemis, Apollo and surprisingly Naomi remained. 

They’ve been standing on their hands, upside down, for at least fifteen minutes. It was an odd mixture of tiresome and interesting. Tiresome in the concept of simply standing upside down for a prolonged period of time while waiting for your opponent to get dizzy enough to give up or fall down in an unflattering matter. Interesting because by now everybody's face was color, Naomi was red and the Olympians a harsh gold, interesting because Artemis was making ridiculous faces at Alex, who returned the favor, and entertaining both herself and those watching. 

She still hoped that the game would end soon, Naomi looked ready to pass out and the olympian brothers looked bored, their self-proclaimed patients running thin. 

“What exactly is happening here?” Athena appeared, her voice was slow and confused as she stared at her upside down siblings. 

“Handstand contest, want to join?” Artemis quipped.

Athena looked like she was actually considering the offer and Zoë mentally screamed at her not to, “As much fun as it looks, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline, for now, I finally got my hands on a book that I’ve been wanting to read for weeks.”

“Booooring,” Hermes complained, veins popped up on his face from the strain and his eyes were ichor-shot.

The lieutenant watched in mild fascinations as the rather peaceful and neutral goddess, from her experience, glared at the messenger god. All of the ichor from his face drained, gold being replaced by white, and his legs swung in the air as he lost his balance. The god fell in a heap, letting out a quiet yelp before he collapsed on the ground like a puppet with cut strings. 

“I’ll be going now,” The wisdom goddess left immediately after her brother had fallen, waving at Artemis and winking at Zoë with a knowing grin. Laughter echoed around the room at the messenger god's expense. 

. . .

“If I win you have to steal all of fathers togas,” Artemis challenged her brother, although they’d been at it for a while now, trying to get the other to sike out. 

“If I win you have to steal all of Ares’ underwear,” Apollo bit back, both of them made disgusted faces at the thought of the elder gods small clothes. Zoë had to resist making fake barfing noises, although she’s almost certain that her face became slightly green. 

While the twins were actively making more and more outrageous bets that Zoë would have to end up preventing them from fulfilling, Hermes had taken a few of the hunters aside and was beginning to layout a master plan.

“So if we use the water balloon…” Zoë couldn’t hear the rest of Hermes’ plan because Apollo let out an inhumane screech. Zoë had no idea who to pay more attention to, prevent the hunters from making a terrible decision in the form of pranking or keep her goddess and her twin from making a stupid bet.

. . .

Athena arrived with some ‘friends’ almost an hour later. The hunters were snooping around the room with Hermes, setting up whatever prank they had planned. Artemis and Apollo were both still upside-down, but were, fortunately, quiet and simply concentrating on remaining upright. They decided that whoever lost would have to steal both Ares’ and Hephaestus’ underwear and swap them, along with stealing Cerebus’ dog toy. 

“I’m back, and I brought…” Athena trailed off upon seeing the sun and moon Olympians still upside down, she sent the hesperide a disbelieving look.

Zoë shrugged, it’s not like she had much control over the goddess initially, when she was with other Olympians, well, let’s just say Artemis regretted a lot of her decisions.

“Athena!” Artemis crowed happily, giving her favorite sister a big grin. 

“Right, how long have they been doing,” Athena paused for effect before gesturing the twins with a sarcastic, “that.”

Zoë glanced at the clock in the room, “A little over an hour and a quarter.”

“Yea, I’ll solve this real quick,” Athena reassured the lieutenant, she turned to address the twins who had begun bickering with each other again, “Guys, let’s make this a bit harder, yes, do it one-handed.”

Artemis lit up at the challenge and immediately picked one arm up and off the ground, holding it out to balance herself. The younger twin looked much more reluctant, but did it nonetheless, lifting the arm much more slowly than his counterpart and wobbling unsteadily the entire time. 

Zoë had to hold in a giggle as the god puffed his cheeks out in concentration while his wobbling got increasingly more chaotic. His legs swung around in the air, almost hitting Artemis’ still ones repeatedly before he fell backward. His backside hitting the ground with a loud slap followed by a groan, Zoë winced feeling slightly bad for the god of medicine. 

The lieutenant jumped when she felt Athena lean over, a cheeky smile on her face that looked weird compared to her usually strict personality, “Apollo has terrible balance, I’m assuming you wanted Artemis to win?”

Zoë nodded, fiddling with her fingers under the intense gaze of the goddess, feeling a lot like she was being studied.

“Now that that’s over, Artemis,” Athena turned to address the childish goddess, who was in the process of rubbing her victory into her twin's face, “I found Hestia and Hera before I came and invited them to come with me, I hope you don’t mind.”

“The more the merrier,” Artemis exclaimed, and Zoë found herself, once again, cursing her goddess and her childish personality. But then Artemis turned to the lieutenant with a gleeful smile and a childish glimmer in her eyes and Zoë forgot why she’d been mad in the first place. 

. . .

“As much as I would love to keep talking about how the Eiffel Tower can grow taller during the summer, Athena, I must make sure that the hunter don’t blow anything up,” Zoë excused herself, trying her best to look apologetic.

“It’s not a problem, we wouldn’t want a repeat of last time,” Athena didn’t seem to care much, already searching for a new victim. Zoë didn’t care personally, already marching over to where Fate was filling a water balloon up with,  _ something _ .

. . .

“Who’d he cheat on with this time?” Zoë slid up to Hera, asking the question both out of curiosity and pity.

“A broadway star,” Hera glowered, though her anger wasn’t directed toward Zoë.

“Have you cursed her yet?”

“Of course,” The queen of gods gave her a menacing grin that had Zoë retreating quickly, guess she wouldn’t be talking with Hera tonight.

. . .

“Hermes, I swear, if thy does any substantial damage to my lady’s palace, I will forcibly remove thee.” 

. . .

“Zoë, I trust you’ve been well?” Hestia smiled disarmingly, sitting on a couch in the middle of the fray. Like it didn’t already look like a war zone.

“Of course, I enjoy being the lieutenant, I wouldn’t wish for any other life,” Zoë smiled back, though hers was a lot tighter, and more like a grimace than anything. 

. . .

“No, Artemis, we can’t put a bouncy house in thy living room.”

. . .

Zoë had been secretly hoping that Aphrodite and Ares wouldn’t show up that day, perhaps Aphrodite was busy making two celebrities falling in love or Ares was starting a war. She was wrong. The two showed up thirty minutes after the Athena and company, both wearing aviator shades and dressed to the nines for some reason.

“Oh,” Aphrodite looked honestly surprised, “So you are here, I thought maybe Hephaestus had been imagining things when he told a satyr, who told a nymph, who told a minor god who told me that you were here...”

Zoë slumped, she forgot how annoying the love goddess could be and she wasn’t even insulting them yet. Why did she have to prove how she got her information, and why did she come if she wasn’t even sure Artemis was here.

“Hi, Aphrodite!” Apollo called from where he was arm wrestling Hermes, waving at the love goddess and nearly losing in the process.

“Either way, I’ll be leaving soon anyways, just wanted to chat with you  _ virgins _ for a bit,” Aphrodite sighed, sniffing daintily at the word  _ virgin _ , like it disgusted her.

“Hello Aphrodite,” Zoë quipped, Artemis was nowhere to be found, likely having retreated after she caught a whiff of Aphrodite’s overpowering, flowery, perfume, leaving the role of the host to her until the goddess returned. Ares had already left Aphrodite’s side, joining the growing crowd around Hermes and Apollo, claiming he wanted a turn.

“Ahh, my sister's pet lieutenant, she hasn’t thrown you out yet?” Aphrodite sneered, peering at her from behind her pink aviators. 

“No, sorry, I know thee had high hopes,” Zoë apologized sarcastically. Aphrodite huffed, glancing back towards her on and off again boyfriend in hopes that they could leave. Gods Zoë hated the self-absorbed goddess.

. . .

“Aphrodite, I thought thee said thee weren’t staying.”

. . .

“Ares, please refrain from wrestling Kacela, or any hunter for that matter.” 

. . .

“Artemis, you’ve been gone for half an hour, where were you!”

. . .

And as predicted, Dionysus and Hephaestus came next, shortly after Artemis returned from wherever she’d gone. Along with several bottles of Olympian wine. They didn’t arrive with nearly as much fanfare as the others, Hephaestus didn’t even greet any of them. He simply placed the two bottles of wine was holding on the counter and made a beeline to Raven, already pulling little gadgets out of his pockets. 

Dionysus was a bit more social, demanding to be shown where the wine glasses were, before forcing one into Artemis’ hand while telling her, “You must tell me how this taste, your brother is terrible at describing wine.”

He turned to Zoë almost immediately after, looking the lieutenant up and down and telling her, “I would give you a glass, but it’d have to be watered down so you wouldn’t get too drunk, which would ruin the taste. And I don’t think you really want to get even tipsy tonight.” 

Zoë remained frozen, surprised that he hadn’t said a single passive-aggressive thing to her, used to one when he arrived and one when he left. She almost relaxed but then she saw Artemis sipping on the wine with a pleased look on her face. 

. . .

“Please stop giving Artemis wine, Dionysus, she gets raging headaches.”

. . .

“Hermes, thee haven’t done anything suspicious for at least an hour, what are thee planning?”

. . .

“No, Athena, I didn’t know that we have enough DNA to stretch from the sun to Pluto and back, much less 17 times.”

. . .

“Sorry, Hestia, we don’t need a fireplace in here, with everything going on right now, it’d only be a hazard, sorry.”

. . .

Zoë made the unfortunate mistake of believing that, maybe, just maybe, that night would go out without a hitch. Nobody getting terribly hurt, nobody storming out of the temple and vowing to curse her, nobody getting angry. That was until Demeter showed up. The first thing she did was greet Artemis and then claim that she’d run out of cereal and was going to steal some of her nieces.

This didn’t make much sense for multiple reasons. One, Artemis didn’t even live here, so why would she have cereal in her closet. Two, if she had cereal, it would be the super sugary stuff, the stuff that kids cried over in the store isles when their parents said no. Three, Artemis didn’t like cereal, she preferred eggs or even a smoothie. Four, Demeter was a goddess, she could simply summon the food from the comfort of her home and everything would’ve been fine. 

But she really wanted Artemis’ cereal for some unknown reason, so she greeted her sudden host before immediately asking for cereal. Zoë had led her out of the living room, through the kitchen and to the pantry. At the time, the only thing that had been on her mind was that she had finally lucked out, a night with all of the hunters at Olympus that finally went right. Well as right as it could with the majority of the Olympians taking up residence in the living room. She hadn’t been thinking about how Hermes’ and the girls’ prank hadn’t been revealed yet. 

Demeter opened the door and that’s when Zoë realized something was going to go, absolutely, horridly, wrong. She only had a quick glimpse at the inside of the pantry, which was definitely not full of food, before water was launched at the god of harvest. She let out a shriek as she was covered in water from head to toe, soaking her chiton and matting her hair to her head. Zoë flinched at both the scream and the little bit of water that her, the stuff that had missed Demeter, guess she was in the splash zone. 

But it wasn’t done. After Demeter finally stopped shrieking the next wave of punishment came in the form of paint-filled balloons. Something proceeded to launch brightly colored latex filled with different colored paints at Demeter, splashing the surprised goddess in reds and blues and greens. Zoë stumbled as she got hit in the chest by a dark purple balloon, it exploded on impact and covered her chest in lavender-colored paint. How the other girl in the room stayed standing after being hit by dozens of balloons was beyond her. 

“Zoë are you okay?” Artemis called from the other room, her voice full of concern.

Zoë didn’t respond because Demeter whirled on her, paint-covered her face and her hair, her clothes were a mismatch of color explosions and she was furious. She marched past the shocked lieutenant and into the living room, leaving a trail on bright red footprints behind. 

“You evil little brats!” Demeter yelled from the living room and Zoë finally was broken out of her trance, she raced after the fuming goddess.

She didn’t make it in time to defuse the situation, Demeter was gone by the time she was in the living room. She glanced at the group, the hunters were trying to hold back their laughter, some of the gods had no such qualms, quite literally rolling on the ground with laughter. 

“Zoë?” Artemis called tentatively from her spot on a couch, not a single hint of humor on her face. Good, at least her lover was smart enough to realize the severity of the situation, “Take a shower, you’ve got paint all over you, I’ll deal with everybody else.”

“We need to apologize to Demeter before she tells Zeus, and somebody needs to clean up the mess before it stains the flooring and-” Zoë started to ramble, spiraling, she did not need the goddess of harvest as her enemy, the prejudice was enough. Gods, how did she not realize what was going to happen. 

“Zoë,” Artemis said more gently, hopping over the side of the couch to stand in front of Zoë, “Take a shower before the paint dyes your skin, I’ll deal with the rest, okay?”

Zoë didn’t respond to busy thinking of all the worst-case scenarios. 

“Trust me on this?” Artemis pleaded, grabbing the lieutenant's hand and squeezing it.

Zoë felt herself nodding in agreement.

. . .

Zoë returned half an hour later, her hair still wet and her skin warm from the shower. She’d changed into the only spare clothes she'd had at Olympus, a loose grey sweatshirt with words that had long since faded and a pair of loose sweatpants. She glanced around the room, the paint was scrubbed clean from the floor, almost as if it never happened. Maybe it didn’t, had Zoë fallen asleep, maybe it was simply a nightmare.

“Oh, Zoë you’re back!” Alex exclaimed, buried under a pile of blankets and cuddled up with Moe, Fate and Rosa.

“We’re sorry Zoë,” The hunters all recited once they spotted her, all of them spread out on the couches or the floor, all covered in blankets. 

Zoë’s eyes swept across the group and couldn’t help the smile that grew on her face, they were just so damned cute. But then she noticed something, “Where’re the Olympians?”

“I sent them home, we cleaned everything up, while Hestia and Hera convinced Demeter that this was all a big mistake,” Artemis told  Zoë, walking out from the kitchen balancing numerous bowls of popcorn. Zoë rushed forward, taking two of the bowls and following Artemis mindlessly.

Zoë couldn’t help the doubt that leaked into her voice, “She doesn't want to kill us anymore?”

“Nope,” Artemis grinned, handing the bowls out, along with paper towels for greasy hands, “We blamed it on Hermes.”

Zoë shrugged at that, it was sorta his fault; from what she’d gathered, the god had been the one to come up with the plan and recruit the hunters. 

“Now sit down, and curl up under the blankets,” Artemis ordered, pushing at her shoulder slightly, “I know how much these days stress you out.”

“What are we doing?” Zoë protested slightly, but allowed herself to be shoved onto the couch and didn’t complain when Artemis tossed a bunch of blankets at her.

“ _ You  _ are going to sleep,” Artemis collapsed into the seat next to her, pulling the lieutenant against her and bundling her up with the blankets, “ _ We _ are going to watch a movie.”

Zoë yawned, feeling the stress of the night finally set in, she didn’t even try to fight it when Artemis told her she’d be going to sleep. She simply got comfortable, adjusting so she could lay her head on her goddess’ lap and closed her eyes. She drowned out the sound of the girls discussing what movie they were going to watch. She’s pretty sure she fell asleep before the hunters had even chosen a movie, the warmth of the blankets pulling her deeper and deeper into the depths of unconsciousness. 

She felt herself wake slightly when the soft press of lips against her hairline woke her, but she simply smiled sleepily and clung tighter to Artemis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The characters are a bit out of character, sorry about that but I really wanted to write Zoë pretty much babysitting all of the Olympians and freaking out when things go wrong. Also sorry if the ending seems a bit rushed, I was getting tired and the entire prompt was getting ridiculously long, I just wanted to wrap it up. I have mixed feelings about this piece so y'all will have to tell me what you think. Anyway, thanks for reading!
> 
> Jesus, this thing is nearly 6,000 words...


	13. Devotion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found this amazing cover, and now, upon looking back on it, is great for this prompt, so y'all should listen to it: https://open.spotify.com/track/1Ia4XK7BYsKTyxOdL9MH2l

Devotion:  love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause. 

The first time  Zoë saw Artemis was when she was on her knees. She was exhausted from running, only stopping for quick naps up high in trees (really it was a wonder how she was still alive by then). Her head bowed as she sucked in air, desperate for oxygen. Her hair was matted and gross from days of tripping through brush and falling out of trees. She had scraps littering her body, her knees bruised, her palms rubbed raw and her arm covered in cuts from when the monsters got too close. 

Artemis stood in front of her like a savior, her white chiton dancing in the moonlight. Her eyes glittered with a mixture of amusement and concern. Everything about her was beautiful, from the milky white of her skin to the reddish-brown of her hair. She seemed to glow in the moonlight, skin flickering with unrestrained  _ power _ .

The goddess had offered her a pouch of water and a few pieces of meat, kneeling down to Zoë’s height and giggling, the sound was beautiful just like the rest of her, in amusement while Zoë scarfed the food down as quickly as she could. Later she would regret it, when she rolled around in pain on a pile of furs, her stomach cramping and Artemis grinning from beside her, an occasional laugh joining the symphony of crickets. 

Zoë had blushed when her savior had made a comment about her eating. Shyly introducing herself as Zoë when asked and explaining that she was being chased by a bunch of monsters, that she had angered the titan Atlas. The goddess’ twinkling giggle was back, and she offered a hand to the kneeling demi-nymph, promising to protect her from the monsters and telling the shaking nymph of her own identity.

The dark-haired nymph had stuttered out apologies, stammering as she rushed to explain that she hadn’t been aware. Zoë’d been expecting a slap, or curse, but instead, the quiet giggling turned to full-blown laughing, the goddess’ head tilted up to face the bright moon and her body shaking with amusement. 

Artemis simply offered Zoë a place at her side, as she traveled around the world, hunting the monsters that plagued the greek world, the very same that had been chasing the runaway Hesperide. Zoë accepted, vowing to always be at her savior's side until her dying breath without prompting. Artemis had simply smiled at her new companion, promising to always protect her.

The position that she’d met her goddess in felt fitting, even centuries later. Worshipping the deity before she even knew it, before she knew that she would spend her life with the goddess. Following her, every whim as the olympian slowly gained more followers, as she was named the lieutenant of their little, as she quickly became known as Artemis’ closest companion, as their minds grew older but their bodies were forever stuck as children. 

Even when  Zoë had been by Artemis’ side for over a century, she still thought of the goddess as unreachable. A figure that was there, a constant in her life, but she would never, truly, be able to understand.

Gods are superhuman beings, worshipped by people across the world. Mortal wished to interact with them, became devote in hopes of gaining their favors. But Gods were unpredictable beings, falling in love with some and cursing others on a whim. No matter how much one studied the events, none could decipher a pattern, it was pure chaos. 

Artemis was one of these deities, a chaotic being who had no sense of danger due to her position. She would decide one day that she wanted to go cliff jumping and the next decide she simply wanted to sleep. She found amusement in things that were undeniably odd and boredom in the most exciting of things. 

That’s why, when Zoë discovered her love for her Patreon she kept it to herself. She’d rather keep her adoration to herself than feel her heartbreak when the goddess got bored of her. Not that Artemis would even consider the possibility of returning her affections, she was a maiden goddess and an olympian. There were a countless number of mortals and deities combined that were more interesting than herself. Dooming herself to an eternity of longing. Wishing for a love that couldn’t happen. 

But, there was something odd about how the goddess acted towards her. Artemis kept sharing her tent with Zoë even after others joined them and got their own tents. The goddess always gave Zoë a kiss on the forehead, and on her circlet once she was labeled as the lieutenant, whenever the eldest hunter had done something well. And of course the goddess’ affection, sure the goddess was affectionate to all of the hunters, hugging them at random and chattering excitedly whenever she was especially so.

But her affection towards the nymph was definitely more, extreme. Demanding piggyback rides on long walks. Turning into an array of animals and trailing after the amused nymph, from circling her as a hawk to sitting on her shoulder as a monkey to trotting after her as a wolf. Often playing with Zoë’s hair when sitting beside the campfire, not that the ex-hesperide was complaining. All of the gestures didn’t really help with Zoë’s love for the goddess, increasing the intensity of it if anything. 

Really, Zoë shouldn’t have been surprised when Artemis had kissed her. A little part of her brain always cataloged all of the more than friendly gestures and stored them for when she was feeling especially love-sick. Not to mention, most of the hunters already assumed that they were together, something that Zoë always vehemently denied while her face burned. 

The goddess had been uncharastically quiet that night, her movement more restrained and her smile didn’t come as easily anymore. She sort of reminded Zoë of a kicked puppy. Most of the hunters had picked up on the tense atmosphere practically oozing from their goddess and retired early, sending confused looks at their leaders as they disappeared into their tents. 

Zoë had sat next to her goddess for the better half of an hour before she started debating to head back to her tent as well. It wasn’t awkward per se, neither of them tried to start a conversation, just simply stared at the orange flames of the fire. Zoë’s eyes were still tracing the flames, flickering to follow a spark that popped off of a log occasionally when Artemis moved. The olympian shifted, turning to face Zoë and the nymph could feel her silver eyes tracing her side profile. 

“I love you,” Artemis had confessed, gone were the laughs and grins that Zoë often associated the moon goddess with, replaced by the impression of a cornered animal. 

But Zoë didn’t have time to respond before Artemis had grabbed her face as gently as the goddess could and pressed a soft kiss to Zoë’s, slightly chapped, lips. Zoë’s eyes were wide when it had happened, stiff in her love's arms. Which didn’t send the right message because then Artemis was gone, Zoë was staring at nothing but the empty forest. 

The lieutenant went to sleep shortly after, well a few hours after waiting for her goddess to return, in an empty bed. She slept with her fingers touching her lips, a gentle smile tugging at her mouth.

When the Olympian returned, several days later, Zoë kissed her, shutting her up before she could ramble and apologize. And repeating the same words between quick kisses, refusing to stay away from her goddess’ lips for more than a second. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was planning on ending this after Zoe and Artemis' meeting, you know, without the kiss, but then I realized I couldn't because this is all about kisses and stuff. But I love the first part, and I think it could've done great by itself. What do you guys think? Thanks for reading~
> 
> Oh yea! And if you like Percy Jackson in general, join my discord server! We need some Zartemis shippers! https://discord.gg/ksy5vnVUXf

**Author's Note:**

> Words: 1925  
> Time: 1 hour and 27 minutes  
> Prompt #23: Laser tag and then push them into a corner and kiss them, then shoot them and walk away.
> 
> Yo, I plan on writing one prompt a month and I'm hoping because I have all of the prompts listed it'll help me keep this promise. And I plan on keeping it, but I know I keep saying I will for other things, but I've set out an hour each day for writing so hopefully, I'll actually do it this time! Plus I've recruited one of my friends to yell at me if I don't, feel free to yell at me too. Sorry if they're not the best, I'm just trying to get better at writing more often and won't always have time to go over them multiple times for spelling errors and stuff, Anyway, hope you all are having a wonderful day! Thanks for reading!


End file.
